Swords & Sealing
by AweSsam
Summary: Naruto is sealed into a sword and sent back in time, and none other than Tenten finds him.
1. Chapter 0

_Where am I?_ Naruto blinked, his eyes sore and aching. He rubbed his eyes, only to earn him a few winces from the tender skin of his sockets, his eyes not opening at all. _Am I blind? _He wondered absently, turning his head, tuning his ears out to the sounds around him. There was nothing to hear either.

And then he heard it.

"_NARUTO!"_

It all came back to him at once, and his eyes flashed open in alarm, ignoring the head-splitting pain from his eyes.

What was he doing here? He was fighting Kaguya nearly a second ago, along with the rest of Team Seven beside him. After he had pulled that amazing Sexy Jutsu, his momentary happiness had been obstructed by Kaguya body slamming into Naruto from behind and placing her hand on his forehead, her red sharingan spinning to life. His eyes had turned dull and heavy, and the last thing he had heard were collective screams from Sakura, Kakashi, and Sasuke.

"_NARUTO!"_ Their voices rang in head collectively as one.

What the F was going on? Where was he?!

He looked around. In front of him there were large sand dunes rising up and into the sky like sloping mountains of pure gold. He pushed through the sand, to try to _feel _it, to make sure it was real.

Dammit, he wasn't supposed to be here. Where had Kaguya sent him?

Was it a dream?

"Sakura! Sasuke! Kakashi-Sensei!" Naruto shouted. "_KAGUYA!_" he roared.

He plopped himself back on the ground, trying to make sense of everything around him.

He felt weird… The scenery, he could see it, but it was almost like he was boxed in somehow. Like he was a spectator watching a movie.

Like a voice. Like something that speaks in your mind.

Like Kurama speaking in _his_ mind.

Then before, with his hands and eyes… had he imagined it?

"Alright then." He growled, snapping out of his shock. "Kurama!" He called upon the tailed beast that was sealed in his stomach and appeared in the swampy background that was his mind.

Naruto swiveled to Kurama, who was looking at him expectantly. "Kurama… the dream…"

Kurama snorted. "**It wasn't a dream kit.**"

"Then where the hell are we?!"

Kurama looked around, ignoring Naruto's little burst of outrage. "**We're in a seal Naruto.**" Naruto looked at him in disbelief.

A seal… that made sense. The way everything looked around him made sense, he meant. Not the actual situation.

"Like the Reaper Death Seal?" Naruto questioned hesitantly.

Kit glared at him. "**Not like that**."

"Then we can break out, right? I'll just use my chakra and push it open."

"**It's not that simple, kit. This seal… it may as well as be as strong as the Reaper Death Seal. Or stronger.**" Kurama growled. "**I hate saying anything compared to that… But you remember the last thing that happened right?" **

Naruto nodded. "Kaguya."

"**Well, she's trapped us somewhere with her sharingan.**"

Naruto's eyes widened, his mind going through a rapid series of thoughts.

"What? How is that even possible?"

Kurama stayed silent for a few moments before speaking up again, changing tracks. Naruto understood why. Nothing Kaguya did ever made sense. Nothing Kaguya did was supposed to be even possible. But it was just the way it was.

"**This doesn't look too good for us Naruto. She didn't just seal us **_**somewhere**_**… she sealed us in **_**something**_**.**"

Naruto said nothing.

Then it dawned on him. The way he felt like he was watching something made sense now - it must be like the way Kurama felt from Naruto's body. Kurama was right… they _were_ locked in something.

The feeling made him nauseated.

"There must be some way." He said slowly.

"_Any_ way." He looked up at Kurama, who was staring at him. "Kurama?"

"**I don't know Naruto**." His deep voice echoed throughout the mindscape.

"How far are we from home?"

Kurama's throat rumbled in thought. "**The largest chakra infested city is about two thousand miles away… but it's not the Hidden Leaf Village."**

Naruto growled. "Well, now that we're missing, Team Seven will send an alarm for us. There has to be at least some Shinobi from the war site that'll find us. Right Kurama?"

"Right Kurama?" Naruto echoed again, looking up at the nine-tailed fox when he had said nothing.

"**There's also the '**_**when'**_** Naruto**."

"Whaddaya mean 'when'?"

Kurama's eyes narrowed as he looked away from Naruto. "**I mean that we're not in our present time. I sense another nine-tailed fox**."

Naruto's eyes widened.

"**Kaguya sent us back in time**."

* * *

It had taken some time for Naruto and the Kyuubi to come to terms with their surroundings: they were sealed in some type of sword, which was currently sitting in the middle of a desert with nothing near them for miles on end.

After Kurama had explained everything around them some more, Naruto had proceeded to try to do anything possible to burst out of that damn seal, even if Kurama had told him otherwise.

But the darn fox was right.

"**Damn it Naruto! I tried, I tried to tell you it wouldn't work, and I tried to respect our relationship but why the **_**hell**_** do think bursting out would work on a Reaper-Death level seal, when even **_**I**_** couldn't burst out of your father's seal? **_**HUH?**__" _Kurama roared.

When Naruto had sunk to the ground and instead let out tears in response, the nine-tailed demon fox softened.

"**Stop crying damn it. It's not like you.**" Kurama sighed.

"I know. I can't believe it Kurama… if we were at least sent back in time, couldn't we have not been _sealed_ in anything? Now we're just stuck here, forever." Naruto chuckled. "I can't believe you could stand this for this many years after you were sealed into me."

"**I can't believe it either.**" Kurama said dryly.

The fox sighed and knelt down, placing his head on top of his arms. He turned to Naruto, his eyes glazed over in thought.

"**Hmm**… **You know how I took control over you when you were younger?**" Kurama started. Naruto nodded."**Well I can try to do the same thing here. The more time we continue to seep our chakra out, the easier it is to eventually break out and take over the seal.**"

Naruto grinned, his optimism coming back slowly. "Yeah!" He frowned a little. "But wouldn't it be easier for someone to find us? And just kinda, I dunno, fool around with the seal?"

Kurama looked at him. "**Do you really think that's going to happen?**"

Naruto shrugged. "Come on. Maybe it will."

He exited his mindscape and looked in silence at the desert. Kurama was right: the chances of anyone coming and finding them was close to zero. The thought of that itself was enough to send anyone into near depression…

He sighed. What he was really worried about wasn't any of that… how were Sakura and Kakashi faring? Was Sasuke protecting them? Did he ditch them? Were they ok?

He had voiced his concerns to Kurama before, but Kurama had told him not to worry. As long as they were in the past, the future could be changed back to normal- if they ever got back to where they came from in time. That was almost in 200 years or so though… at least according to what Kurama.

But Kurama's hopes weren't that high either.

He sighed again and stared at the bright blue of the sky and large sand dunes. Thank god they could see something… Naruto didn't know if he could take just lying all around in black forever. At least they had something, right?

"Kurama?" Naruto asked suddenly.

"**Yeah kit?**"

"We're gonna be okay."

He really hoped so.

* * *

200 years was going to be a very long time, Naruto had learned. They didn't really age in the seal… there was some type of protection against it.

He didn't really do anything in the seal… but if there was one thing Naruto learned in that seal, it was patience.

The first few decades, Naruto had spent fluctuating from one mood to another. Sometimes he would go into near depression from the loneliness he was overwhelmed with, while some days he had undergone unlimited positive enthusiasm about getting out, which had led him to try to break open the seal any way he could.

He never could.

There was a time where he had painted bomb seals on the walls. Then the time he had used a tailed beast bomb (the one time Kurama had begrudgingly agreed). He had even tried everything Jiraiya had taught him with seals. Again, nothing worked.

He started losing track of time after the first few decades. Days turned into months, and months turned into years. Which year, he never knew.

He also started spent a lot of time thinking about his life. It was something Naruto never really had time to do before he was sealed. With the war that was going on, and Kaguya and Madara, it had been nearly impossible to go back to the old days where he could just lie on his bed and think. He didn't like it very much back in the academy… even if he had a lot of time to himself, it was mostly because no one wanted to be friends with him. But now, it was different.

His thoughts would always drift to his team and his friends, Sakura and Sasuke in particular. Was Sasuke ever coming back to the village? Sasuke had even said he wanted to become Hokage. He had a chance now, Naruto reckoned, since he wasn't there anymore to stop Sasuke.

Then there was Hinata… he was seriously worried about her.

Neji had been like a brother to Hinata, especially after the chunin exams. Seeing how close they had grown through the years was a good change for them. And now, Neji was gone.

The rest of Team Gai… he was really worried for them too. It was soul crushing to Lee and Tenten to lose their best friend who had been with him through everything and for Lee, a rival who brought out the strength in him. He remembered the days where him, Lee, and Neji would spar, and they way they would all banter with each other was so surreal. Naruto had considered Neji cold before, but now he knew it was just his way of showing some type of affection.

In a way, Neji was like Sasuke.

Unable to take the thoughts anymore, he sighed and rolled to his side, falling asleep.

* * *

200 years later, a rusty old sword was found in the middle of the Great Desert, a small part of it uncovered, glinting in the light. A group of merchants, escorted by ninja from Suna, had been making their way through the great desert when something had caught merchant Tazuna's eye.

With excellent taste for old vintage goods and weapons of all kinds, Tazuna had immediately picked up the sword and dusted it off.

He had taken another look at it and had changed his mind. "Eh. This sword's pretty trashy." He had said, dropping it back on to the ground.

His friend, Hachiro, had picked it up instead and had placed it in his bag, of the rare chance it might be worth something. He had hauled it back to the Land of Wind, Suna, putting it somewhere in the back of his shop.

It had stayed in the shop for a long time, until Hachiro had grown old and ripe, passing away to leave the shop to his grandchildren. One of his grandchildren, Akiko, had taken it upon himself to renovate the old shop, going through all of his grandfather's old things. One day as he was looking through a box of weapons, he found a rusty old sword with black skin lining wrapped around the handle.

Akiko had taken the rusty old sword and scrubbed and shined the rust off, revealing a very different type of design. It wasn't like anything he had seen before of his age. The blade was different, but similar to an ancient predecessor he had seen before. He had passed it off as nothing, and sold the sword to a friend for pretty cheap. At least he had made some money.

The friend took the silver sword and sold it again to another friend, this time for a higher price. That friend sold it to another friend for an even higher price.

It went on and on until the sword ended up in the hands of a weapon shop owner. Now, unlike the other people who had come upon the sword, the owner had taken one look at the silver sword, with the black skin wrapped lining of the handle, and realized it was something more than people had assumed it to be. The sword was hundreds of years old, he had realized, and he took the sword and gave it it's own case.

He eventually settled down in the village Hidden in the Mist and when he was close to passing away on his death bed, he told his granddaughter to come near. He told her of the greatness of the sword. "Keep it safe." He whispered. "It's worth much more than you might think."

His granddaughter had nodded and swore to protect it with her life.

She eventually became a fine ninja, always keeping the sword with her, but never daring to use it.

The granddaughter remembered what her grandfather had told her about weapons: weapons were meant to use, not to lie around in waste.

_What's the point if I never use it?_ She had thought.

She ended up giving it away to a friend who would use it for many years, telling her friend the same her grandfather had told her.

His name was Katsu. He was the first one the sword spoke to. "_Use it well, use it wise,_" It told him. Katsu had immediately dropped the sword, horrified. Thinking he was crazy, he took the sword, put it in its case, and had fled to the Village Hidden in the Rain.

He gave it to a sealer, stating that the sword was cursed with a voice from inside. The sealer took the sword and tampered with it for a bit, but found nothing unusual. It was just an ordinary sword. The Sealer gave it to another swordsman, who was happy to take it from his hands.

The swordsman used it for a long time before the voice spoke to him again. The voice had told him it wasn't evil or wrong - well, not as evil as he might have thought it was. The swordsman went along with it and used it anyway, before giving it to a shinobi who could use it better than him.

The shinobi was very happy to get the sword. The voice was nice enough to him and gave him good power - it was all he needed. It wasn't long before the shinobi realized there was something much bigger sealed in the sword - large and powerful enough to presumably take over the whole world. The shinobi tampered with the sword more than he should have, and the chakra that plagued the sword destroyed him from the inside out, burning him alive. They had found the sword in the middle of the ruins of his body, tinted a dark gray.

A relative of the shinobi took the sword and kept it for a bit, not knowing what had really happened to his shinobi cousin.

He passed off the sword to someone else, a collector, who was old and wise, and was happy to take off anything unusual from anyone's hands. The collector knew better than any of them- the sword was obviously something more than it seemed.

The collector had taken the sword and had placed it with his weapons. He moved around for a little bit, traveling the world, before opening a shop in Konoha, the Hidden Leaf Village.

The Land of Fire.


	2. Chapter 1

Hi, I'm back! I know this is later than a month, but I really didn't have time. I had a vague idea of this chapter before, but I didn't really reinforce it until I sat down and got over my writer's block...

* * *

It was afternoon in Konoha. Toshi, the weapon shop owner, was dealing with business – it was near the beginning of the school year for most Genin. They would flock to his shop to get new kunai or whatever else they wanted. Not saying that he didn't get business the rest of the year – this was a ninja village after all, so customers were frequent.

His shop was nice quiet place, with a red and white banner with his name on the outside, and a nice wooden themed inside. He liked his shop, and it was usually very pleasant to be in. But not when his daughter, Tenten, was acting up.

Tenten touched her head to the counter and groaned. "Dad. Dad. Dad." She said, poking him every time she called for him. Her dad didn't respond. "Daddy." Her dad simply said nothing and shined the kunai in his hand, taking care to not hurt himself with the edges. "DADDY!"

"Tenten, you're not going to get a kunai."

"Please?"

Her dad sighed. "No. Why don't you go play with your own instead?"

"But _Daaad, _those are toys! I want the real ones!" She whined. Ever since Tenten had joined the academy a few weeks ago at the age of 4, she had been clamoring to get the "real weapons of a real ninja". Toshi tried stressing the importance of "make do with what you have" on Tenten, but it wasn't really working considering she lived in the biggest weapon shop in Konoha with her dad as the owner.

"The real ones are the ones that can hurt you Tenten."

"But real ninjas use _real_ Kunai." A light sparked in her eye and she pumped a fist in the air. "Like the Ninja Tsunade!" She was prepared to go on her huge rant on how awesome the woman of the Sannin was when her Dad cut her off.

"Do you know when Tsunade got a Kunai, Tenten?" Toshi had no idea when. He hoped his daughter didn't either.

Tenten looked at him bewildered. "No?"

"She got a real kunai when she started using one in the academy." Her dad frowned and looked at her. "Why do you want a Kunai anyway?"

Tenten huffed. "Well, everyone says since my dad owns a weapon shop, I should have a real Kunai. And my classmate Neji has a Kunai. And - and I want a Kunai too!"

Neji? Toshi had heard a lot about the kid in the past few weeks, and the fact that he had a kunai at the age of five didn't surprise him. His family must have been way in their heads to give him a Kunai when he was four years old, as Tenten had told him.

Toshi sighed and looked at Tenten, who was currently trying to convince him with puppy dog eyes. He narrowed her eyes at her before sighing again.

"Fine." Toshi said setting the fully shined kunai back in its display. "I'll give you a Kunai." Tenten's eyes lit up. "But only if you promise to take care of it very _very_ well."

Tenten scrambled onto the wooden counter. "I will, I will!"

"And you can't use it on the streets."

"Ok, ok!"

Toshi laughed. "Stay here for a second." He opened the back door of the shop and went to the last shelf. Crouching under, he reached for the boxed set of new kunai that he was planning to give Tenten when she first started her ninja training at the Academy. He ruffled through and found a smaller one that Tenten could use for right now.

He exited the back and closed the door behind. Tenten tried to grab whatever was in his hands. "I wanna see, I wanna see!"

Toshi opened the tissue wrapped around the kunai and held it out to Tenten. "Be careful. And don't ask me for another Kunai. If you lose this one, it'll be your last."

Tenten grabbed it out of his hands, ignoring him as she jumped around the room. "All right! I'm gonna show everyone at school tomorrow and they'll be so amazed and then they'll want a kunai -" She blabbered on and on.

Her dad just watched her dance around the shop, only turning when the door chimed.

* * *

Tenten had jumped out of bed that morning, hastily packed her lunch in her bag (her dad was a great cook), and had chugged down a large glass of milk before running off to school.

She had sat down in her seat proudly when her friend Choko came over.

"Why are you so happy?" Choko questioned, sliding into the seat beside her.

Tenten's eyes brightened. "I got a Kunai!"

Choko gasped like the world had ended.

"Lemme see!"

Tenten nodded and brought the beauty out. It was actually just a simple kunai, but to students at the academy, it could've been treasure.

"Kami!" Choko said out loud. Tenten shushed her, and Choko quieted down. "My brother has the same one!" she whispered furiously. "But yours looks newer."

"It _is_ new. My dad just gave it to me."

Choko frowned. "But I thought your dad wouldn't give you a kunai!" Tenten shrugged and opened her mouth before a few more classmates popped up over her shoulders.

"You got a Kunai?!" The one with extremely shiny hair asked. Tenten nodded proudly.

"Can I hold it?"

That attracted enough attention so that practically the whole class was at Tenten's seat, goggling at her kunai. Most of them dreamed to be ninja, after hearing great stories of them from over all nations.

Tenten proudly chattered away and answered questions about all types of weapons, kunai, and shuriken for her classmates, all things she had learned from her father.

"Excuse me. That's my seat." A voice said. Tenten looked over at the stone faced Neji Hyuga, who was speaking directly to Choko.

"Uh- uh, sorry." Choko quickly got up, tripping over her feet. Neji just looked away and sat in his assigned seat next to Tenten.

"Why are you all here?" Neji asked, his white soulless eyes staring at the crowd around Tenten's seat in annoyance.

Tenten huffed. "I got a new kunai!"

Neji stared at her before glancing at her kunai. "So what?" He said, closing his eyes and looking away. "I've got a kunai too. And it's _way_ better than yours."

The stunned silence that followed was broken by loads of whispers. "Neji has a kunai better than Tenten's!"

"Dude, I've seen Neji's Kunai. It's Epic."

"Neji's from the Hyuga's! His kunai _must_ be better than Tenten's!"

"Are you dumb? Tenten's dad is a weapon maker! She probably has it better than Neji."

"But Neji's a Hyuga."

"Yeah! Neji is stronger."

"Neji's cooler!" His fangirls cried.

Tenten fell silent at the whispers and looked into her lap, her eyes brimming with tears.

Neji glanced at her, and looked away not that guiltily.

Then rage sparked in Tenten.

"Oi Neji!" Neji looked at her, irritated.

"Who are you to decide if your Kunai is better than mine?!" She roared in anger, standing up. Neji winced from the sound. "My Kunai is way better than yours! It's newer, and better. AND MY DAD GAVE IT TO ME, AND HE'S GOT_ LOADS OF KUNAI! _HE KNOWS _EVERYTHING_!"

Neji fell silent before narrowing his eyes at her. "Well, if you like the Kunai so much, why don't you _marry_ _it_?"

"_NEJI_!" Tenten had roared when the class erupted into laughter.

The teacher had barged in the next second and had told the whole class to sit their butts down and shut up.

Needless to say, that day had not started off well for Tenten at all.

* * *

It was lunchtime and Tenten had gone outside with her lunch box in hand and a glum expression on her face. She sat underneath the tree with the swing and opened her box. A message was inside the box. _Don't hurt anyone with the Kunai. -Love, Dad._

Tenten just sighed. She _had_ really wanted to throw the Kunai today. At Neji. And tell _him_ to marry it, not her. But that would technically be violating the agreement with her dad if she accidentally hurt someone.

She sighed and ate her lunch next to the other girls in the class.

She had finished her lunch along with the rest of the girls when they had gotten up to go play tag with the rest of the boys. Choko tapped her shoulder. "Tenten, you wanna play?"

"Not really."

Choko shrugged. "There's nothing you can do against Neji, Tenten." Tenten grunted. "Fine. Just come when you feel like it."

Choko walked away, leaving Tenten to ponder her life choices.

She drew up her knees to her chest, resting her arms on top. "Stupid Neji…" She grumbled.

"You shouldn't feel so bad Tenten." A voice said next to her. Tenten looked up to see the super shiny haired kid from before sitting next to her.

"What are you doing here?" Tenten questioned.

"I felt bad for you." The kid said.

"Hey! Don't feel bad for me."

He stuck his tongue out. "Then don't feel bad for yourself."

Tenten just looked away and grumbled.

"You know, it's ok to not be a genius like Neji."

"Says you. You probably have no idea what it feels to be looked down upon so much by him." Actually, Neji looked down on everyone. But she was pretty sure Neji looked down at her the most. He probably hated her guts.

Ugh, Neji. _Neji Neji Neji_, she mocked in her head. Neji thought his clans' weapons were way better than her dad's weapons were. He probably thought his clan was better than _everyone_.

The shiny haired kid stayed quiet before speaking up. "Maybe I do."

Tenten looked at him. "Seriously? How?"

He smiled at her. "You know how everyone has chakra coils, right?"

"Yeah?"

"Well, ever since I was born, my chakra coils have been too underdeveloped. I can't even hold enough chakra to do a single Jutsu."

Tenten gaped. She had no idea what to think. "I'm so sorry!"

"Don't be, Tenten! Because even so I want to be a ninja! I'm going to be the best ninja there is, better than Neji!" He proclaimed. "I'm going to work hard to become a ninja, because where there is a will there is a way. That's my Ninja Way!

He opened one eye and looked at her. "And that is also why Neji's my Eternal rival."

Tenten looked at him in surprise.

"Neji's a genius of talent. He's a prodigy. But I will be a prodigy of hard work. That is why I respect Neji so much, and why I won't give up." The shiny haired kid smiled and looked at her. "So you shouldn't give up either. Just because he's better now doesn't mean he will never be our equal in the future, right?"

Tenten grinned at him. "Yeah! You're right!" Her mood had been lifted with his super long speech. "One day we'll knock him down from his high horse! Then he'll learn to respect others!"

The shiny haired kid high-fived her and they smiled.

"So, what's your name?" Tenten asked.

"Lee. Rock Lee."

Tenten grinned.


	3. Chapter 2

_Hey, I'm back with a super early chapter again! I just had to post this now, because I was just booming with ideas, and I really needed a good transition chapter. And don't worry, Tenten will meet Naruto soon, for any who are awaiting. _

_I don't know when I will write the next chapter because I might not have time:(_

* * *

_THUNK._ The Kunai successfully landed on the bullseye of the makeshift target Tenten had crafted. Tenten smiled proudly and put her hands to her sides, grinning at no one.

Ever since the 5-year-old had gotten a kunai, all she had done was practice in her free time. The first time she had tried to throw the kunai, it hadn't gone as well as she expected, and the kunai hit the edge of the target.

"I didn't hit the red! My kunai!" Tenten had whined.

Toshi snorted. "Tenten, do you think anyone hits the red on their first try?"

"Probably Tsunade-sama."

"Uh… actually, Tsunade-sama _didn't_ hit the bullseye on her first try." Toshi had no idea if the legendary Sannin had hit the bullseye or not on her first try. He hoped she didn't.

"Really?" Tenten looked up at him.

"Sure. But that's not the only thing. I for one am shocked that you even _hit_ the target on the first try."

"Whaddaya mean?" Tenten frowned.

"Most people don't even hit the target when they throw, and even more less when they're 5. I think that this just means that you've got weapon master blood in you."

Tenten had giggled at that. "I guess I do."

The rest of the week had passed by with Tenten ferociously attacking the makeshift target over and over again. As a 5-year-old, she had pretty much unlimited free time in and out of the academy. Soon enough, a week later, she could hit the bullseye pretty frequently.

_But now I have to hit the bullseye _every _time. _She thought.

When she went to school, tired of practicing, she would be motivated again when Lee told her everything _he_ had done the day before.

"I'm just saying Tenten, I did 100 pushups yesterday and I practiced my punching form until 12 in the night." Lee had said.

"_Twelve_?!" Tenten gaped.

"Yep. I know." Lee grinned.

"How do your parents let you stay up that late?" Tenten cried, shaking Lee by the shoulders.

"Well… they're not really around so…" Lee had trailed off, looking away.

Tenten fell silent. "Oh." Her hands hesitantly released him from her clutches. "I'm sorry Lee."

Lee, for the first time, had said nothing.

That was something else that Tenten had learned about in the academy – that being a ninja, you could die. Many kids of shinobi had either one or two parents missing, something that was fairly frequent among most. Tenten thought that was horrible.

But, Tenten could relate to it, she thought. Her mom had died when she was two years old, and even thought Tenten didn't remember anything about her, she did remember her smile.

And the fact that her mom had been a shinobi.

And the fact that she never seemed sick, and the fact that she _definitely_ wasn't old.

It didn't take long for Tenten to connect the dots.

"You know, Neji doesn't have a mom either." Lee had said one day. Tenten looked at him. "Or a dad."

"I thought Neji _did_ have a dad."

"Well, he used to, I think. Remember when he used to be so cheerful?" Tenten didn't. "Well I heard his dad died with something to do about his clan."

"Oh." Tenten had said quietly, picking the grass underneath her. _Why does everyone have such a depressing backstory?_

Then she remembered the day she had brought her kunai to school.

"_My Kunai is way better than yours! It's newer, and better. AND MY DAD GAVE IT TO ME, AND HE'S GOT LOADS OF KUNAI! HE KNOWS EVERYTHING!" _

_Neji fell silent._

Tenten cringed and let out a moan. She shouldn't have said that. Who knows what Neji must have been thinking right then?

_He must hate me even more now._

"What happened Tenten?" Lee asked.

"Nothing... I just guess I shouldn't have said all those bad things about Neji."

Lee looked at her, his eyes widening before he let out a few fake sniffles. "Tenten… are you showing guilt? Towards _Neji_? How you've changed—"

"_WHA—IT'S NOT THAT SURPRISING, YOU _BAKA_!_" She yelled, cutting him off and hitting him on the head.

Lee cringed and rubbed the bump on his head.

"Still. That doesn't give Neji an excuse to act like a pain in the butt…" Tenten grumbled.

Lee had grinned. "I agree."

* * *

After Tenten could start hitting the bullseye more than just "frequently" (ha, more like _every_ time now) she changed her targets. Toshi helped her build new better ones, and she would go out into the forest in the back of their house and would hang targets everywhere she could and practice throwing her kunai at different angles.

But now with kunai, as in _multiple_ Kunai. And shuriken.

Tenten was positively _ecstatic_.

They had started—finally, might Tenten add—practicing Kunai at the academy, when Tenten had just turned 8. Her father had finally given her her first set of kunai and she had took it with glee and anticipation.

"Ok!" Eito-sensei had said on the first day of kunai practice. "Line up. For our first day of kunai practice, we will go over the basics. Neji! _Lee_! No squabbling."

Eito-sensei had then proceeded to go over the basic poses and the basics of basically _everything_. Tenten had stood there bored out of her mind, and she could see that she wasn't just the only one. Neji wasn't paying any attention either.

Their eyes met for a split second before they both glanced away. _I glanced away first._ She thought.

Every interaction between them had become a competition of some sort. Tenten wasn't really complaining. At least then she could finally show Neji who was becoming better.

"Ok! Now practice!" Eito-sensei said over the crowd of students who were either groaning or trying to get their Kunai to _work_ for them.

Tenten had finally grinned and had effortlessly thrown her kunai at her target, hitting the bullseye.

"Oh my god, look! Tenten hit it!"

"First try!"

"That's what you get for a Weapon makers daughter!"

She smiled uncontrollably and looked over at Lee, who shot her a grin and a thumbs up.

"LOOK!" Tenten swiveled around at the sudden cheer.

"Well, of course, _Neji's _gonna hit first try!"

"He's a Hyuga!"

Tenten looked over at Neji who had also effortlessly thrown his own kunai at his target, hitting the bullseye. Her eye twitched, but then she sighed.

_Of course. He's Neji. There's no _way_ I'm gonna be _better_ than him._

"HEY!" Eito-sensei barked. "Pay attention to your own targets! Now, AGAIN!"

And so, she threw her kunai. Again, and again and again. And it hit the bullseye, every time. And every time she looked at Neji, he had done the same.

They switched to long distance practice soon enough, and the result was the same.

Tenten growled and forcefully threw a shuriken, hitting the bullseye and cutting deep into the wood.

Neji threw _his_ shuriken and it hit the bullseye too.

"Ok, that's a wrap." Eito-sensei said, glancing at how enamored the class was at the shuriken and kunai throwing competition between Tenten and Neji. "Excellent job, Neji and Tenten. Your skills are quite formidable." He looked to the rest of class. "As for the rest of you…" He looked at the multiple kunai and shuriken that were littered across the ground and sighed. "Just clean the targets of the kunai's and then you can leave. But make sure to practice at home. Otherwise I'll be sending some letters. Got it?"

The class groaned and recited something that sounded like a 'yes', and then packed their kunai and shuffled towards the building.

Tenten sighed and took one last look at the target behind her. She picked up the kunai lying against her foot, the demonstration kunai, and looked at it, _really_ looked at it.

Then she looked at the target again. She sighed and turned away, throwing the kunai at the target uselessly, sulking, not looking. It hit something with a _thunk._

Tenten didn't pay enough attention to care.

She walked past Neji, who was staring at something past her. He then started to stare at her.

"What?" She said. She really couldn't be bothered by him now.

He looked away. "Nothing."

Tenten sighed internally and followed the rest of the class into the building.

Neji looked back at the kunai that Tenten had thrown before walking away.

The kunai had hit the perfect dead center of the bullseye.

* * *

Throughout the next two years Eito-sensei had taught them basic taijutsu and ninjutsu as well. They had learned henges and making illusionary clones for ninjutsu and then sparred every day for Taijutsu. Most of it was pretty light and easy, so she had taken it upon herself to challenge herself. She had brought books home and learned some slightly more genin-leveled jutsus, practicing at home frequently. She would spar with Lee and her friend Choko occasionally as well.

"For those of you who want to be ninja, you will have to continue more in depth later and then ultimately take the genin exam. If not, you will have to switch out of the academy and into another school." Eito-sensei said.

"Raise your hands if you plan on continuing the academy after this summer."

Some hands shot straight up while some hands rose up hesitantly. Tenten looked around with her hand raised. Lee, obviously, had his hand up, and Neji did too.

Eito-sensei looked around the room and nodded. "Ok, so that's a little more than half. Good. Class dismissed."

"Hey, guess what? Rin's planning on not coming to the academy next year." Choko said to her on the walk from school.

Tenten looked at her. "Seriously?" She hadn't noticed.

"Yep. And she said that I should too." Choko said. "She said that it wasn't worth the trouble to go through."

"She shouldn't be saying things like that. You know how many ninjas save others?!" Tenten cried.

"I know. But…" Choko trailed off.

"But what?!"

"Well," Choko hesitated. "They save others at the expense of their own lives."

Tenten's eyes widened before looking away.

Choko stopped walking. "I—I'm thinking about dropping out too Tenten. I don't think I could do that. I don't think I could leave everyone I ever know to be a ninja. And what if there's a war? My dad told me we're not on best terms with every ninja nation out there, you know. Then we'd have to go fight." She croaked.

Tenten stopped and looked at her. She opened her mouth to speak, but no words came out. She couldn't just say that Choko was _wrong_.

She really wasn't.

"But what about Tsunade?" She asked. They had both been wanting to be like Tsunade since forever.

"Dang it Tenten! No one's ever heard from Tsunade from forever! What if she's dead too?" Choko shouted, looking at the ground.

"She can't be dead!" Tenten insisted. "She's Tsunade! The Legendary Sannin!"

"She's still human!" Choko said.

Tenten faltered.

"Won't you stay beside me?"

"I'll stay beside you on the sidelines. I'm sorry Tenten."

Tenten didn't know what to say.

* * *

The first thing Tenten did when it was morning was go over to Choko's house. She had knocked on her door, and a bleary eyed Choko had appeared. Choko's eyes had widened and she had hugged the headlights out of her.

Tenten and Choko spent the rest of the morning talking about what they were going to do and be when they grew up.

"Tenten, I promise you that I'll always be here for you when you need me, ok?" Choko had said.

"I know." Tenten replied. "And I will be too."

The rest of the day Tenten had lounged around at home and helped her father take care of the weapon shop. She went out into the back and practiced her kunai and her form and her jutsus. And then she had sprawled herself on her bed and thought about what she was going to do with her future and her training.

She was going to be a genin soon, and she needed something to really launch herself at everyone. Neji had his Byakugan and his special Hyuga Taijutsu. Lee didn't really have anything, not yet, but he had the passion and the drive. And his Taijutsu was, well..._ some_thing to be reckoned with.

And Tenten… well Tenten didn't really have anything. She knew a good few jutsus like earth wall and was fairly well with Taijutsu. But then again, she was really good at weapons. She had practiced with all types of weapons that were available to her in her dad's shop. She literally spent all her time in weapons and she loved every type of weapon. She had even started using seals to hold her different weapons, of any space and size.

And she had a weapon master's blood in her.

Tenten always knew that she would be a weapon master. But she really had wanted to be like the Sannin Tsunade. She had tried at school, when Eito-sensei had tested their Chakra control, but it just didn't _work_ for her. She had tried the exercises at home, but it wasn't working, and it really wasn't that fun, sitting and trying to heal people forever. She still tried and finally made success in doing a basic healing jutsu on herself from a small paper cut.

Afterwards, only when she had gone and practiced with a new weapon, did she realize that maybe she really didn't want to be like the famous woman Sannin after all. Maybe in spirit, her strength, and the way she saved people, but not so much as in the "medical" part of it.

She was going to be a weapon master, she decided.

"Well, obviously." Lee had said the first day of the next year. Without Choko and some of her other classmates around, the classroom felt strange, and a wierd sort of gloomy. "Of course you're gonna be a weapon master. You love weapons."

Tenten looked at him. "So…?"

Lee grinned. "I think that is great! But I can't say I didn't expect it."

"Then what else am I supposed to do?"

Lee shrugged. "Maybe specialize in something."

"A weapon?"

"Sure. Not a Kunai though. Every ninja has to know how to use that."

"Shuriken?"

Lee shrugged again. "Well, that's the same situation as a kunai. But, it depends on the Shuriken. Some ninja have giant shuriken that they specialize in. Like that new instructor, Mizuki-sensei."

"Huh." Tenten said. Lee actually gave pretty good advice.

"Speaking of, I really need to get better at my aim Tenten. Would you help me?"

Tenten grinned. "Sure, but only if you spar with me."

"YOSH!" Lee had cheered, agreeing with her.

_Ok_. Tenten thought. _That_ was certainly new.

* * *

"Hey Tenten, what are you going to specialize in when you grow up?"

Tenten looked up to see four boys looking at her. After last summer, the students at the academy had entered their last two years in the academy: their ninja training years. She recognized them as some of the new classmates that mixed with her class after the ninja training started in the academy.

"Oh, I'm going to be a weapon master!" Tenten said, looking back at the grass underneath her, picking at one of the stems.

The tall boy frowned. "A weapon master?"

"Yep."

"Isn't that a little bit too basic?"

"How?" Tenten said, not looking up.

"Anyone can learn to use and throw a weapon."

Tenten's brow furrowed and she looked up at the tall boy. "What?"

"Yeah. Maybe you should do something else Tenten." The tall boy said.

The shorter one elbowed him. "Ha ha, maybe I should be a weapon master. Lemme throw some weapons at you."

The tall boy nudged him back. "Hey, that's not nice!" He said glancing at Tenten. "You're making her feel bad."

"Whatever. Let's go ask Neji." The shortie said, walking away. The tall one gaped at Tenten before awkwardly walking away.

Tenten just gaped back.

* * *

When Tenten had gotten back home from sparring and had entered the weapon shop that afternoon, the first thing she had done was run up to her dad.

"What is it, Tenten?" Her father asked.

Tenten looked up at her dad with the most serious face she could muster. "Dad, do you think that being a weapon master is too basic?"

Toshi looked at her in surprise. "What?"

"Well, everyone knows how to use a kunai. And there are only so many weapons to master. And—and anyone can master a weapon." Her eyes brimmed with tears. "There's nothing special about being a weapon master. Everyone else has so many cool things! Lee's getting better at his Taijutsu every day. And Neji's got his eyes and his special juken." She blabbered. "There's really nothing special about knowing how to aim and throw a bunch of weapons at once! Neji's aim is just as good as mine is, and he doesn't even try!"

She looked up at her dad who was looking at her with widened eyes.

"What? Tenten, don't be silly."

Tenten looked away. "I'm not being silly! I'm serious!"

"And I'm serious too." Toshi frowned and took her by the shoulders. "You know, it takes a lot for a person to master a weapon. Sure, everyone can master a weapon, but not everyone is willing to put in the time and effort to master it.

"And who cares about Neji?" Toshi said. "If his aim is as good as you say it is, then go ask him if he can master a kunai by the end of one week." Toshi paused. "And even if he did learn it super-fast and he's even better than you, is that a good reason to stop trying to be what you want? Are you really going to stop doing something because someone else is better than you?"

Tenten bit her lip. "No…"

"Exactly. Who cares what people think? If you like weapons, then you go into weapons. No one's stopping you."

Tenten didn't look up from the ground.

Toshi opened his mouth to say something, but he was interrupted by the door chime from a customer. He sighed. "Sorry sweetie. I'll talk to you later okay?"

Tenten just nodded and walked away, pushing open the doors to the shop. She needed to be outside for a bit, she decided.

Tenten made her way through the streets of Konoha, unconsciously following the same path to the academy. The familiar building caught her eye, and she zoned back in to see the same tree and the academy building in front of her. She had sat there that morning when the four boys had made fun of her and her hopes to a weapon master.

_I mean, it's not that stupid. No one at the academy can aim as well as I do… well, except for_ Neji.

But her dad had said being a weapon master was something to be proud of. And it definitely wasn't a specialty for people who couldn't do anything else!

But Tenten _had_ only definitely decided on being a weapon master after she realized she didn't have the best chakra control to be like the medical Tsunade.

Her brow furrowed and she kicked the rock in front of her as she made her way to the tall tree in front of the academy, hoping to sit on the swing. Tenten looked up, and unfortunately some blonde-haired boy who looked her age was already sitting on the swing, looking down on the seat. He looked even more depressed than she was, and at the moment she didn't think that was possible.

So, she sat on the ground next to the boy, resting her head on the tree trunk.

The boy perked up and looked at her, surprised.

"W- what are you doing here?" He asked, his bright blue eyes widening at her at an exponential rate.

Tenten wasn't fazed at the somewhat rude question.

"I don't really know." She mumbled.

"What?"

"Nothing." She said. "And anyway, what are you doing here?" she asked.

The boy shrugged. "I don't really have anywhere else to be."

Tenten looked at him and sighed. "I think I can relate to that." She glanced back at the boy who was still staring at her in shock. His eyes gleamed with something that was a little… off. "What happened?"

"W-What?"

"You look sad." She said. "Why?" Tenten asked. Not that she really wanted to know, but more so because she wanted to take her mind off her own case.

The boy pouted and looked away. "Hmm. Well, I dunno."

"You don't know why you're sad?"

He hesitated. "Well, I'm always like this." Then he turned to her, and anger flashed in his eyes. "And anyway, why are you talking to me? You go to the academy, right? Don't you know who I am?"

Tenten scoffed. This kid must have a Neji complex. "Should I? You're the same as any other person, okay? So, don't get all—"

"You don't know who I am." He stated, cutting her off and looking at her with incredulity.

"And you don't know who I am either." Tenten pointed out, her brow ticking. "Look, I've never seen you before. I don't think you're in my year."

"A-Ah, that must be it!" The blonde boy stammered. Tenten's eyes narrowed. The kid was trying to hide something.

"Wait, who are you anyway?" She asked, starting to get curious.

"Never mind that!" The boy said, cutting her off. He grinned at her instead.

Tenten raised her brow at the sudden mood change. "Why—"

"HEY!"

Tenten and the blonde-haired boy both looked up at the voice at the same time. A man wearing a chunin vest with a spiky brown ponytail and a scar over his nose crossed his arms and looked at the blonde-haired boy. "Don't you want ramen?"

"Oh-OK! I'm coming!" The boy shouted from next to Tenten, getting up from his seat. He turned to Tenten with a huge grin on his face. "Thank you!" he said, running off.

Tenten just frowned. For what?

* * *

The next day, when she saw Lee at the training grounds, he had told her that it was "Unyouthful to be so discouraged by people who had no business in her life."

"I never let anything get in my head Tenten! You have to keep your mind clear of negative thoughts." Lee had said. Tenten just frowned, more because of the weirdness of his "youthfulness" he kept on spouting about than anything else.

She snorted. "You're right Lee. I don't even know why I keep doubting myself anymore."

Lee hummed in thought. "Maybe you just have to get your mind off of everything. Why don't you look for something new?"

Tenten brightened. "You're right! You know," she said, turning, "I've been thinking a lot about what you said about the specializing in a weapon or something. And although that's cool and all, doesn't a weapon master use every weapon?"

Lee shook his head. "That's true, but that doesn't mean you can't like one weapon more than another, right?"

"Huh."

Lee laid down on the grass, still looking at her. "Maybe you're just looking at a weapon master being someone who can use every weapon, and can use every weapon simultaneously. That sounds pretty impossible right? Look at a weapon master as someone who can use every weapon, but uses some over others. Someone who knows when to use their weapons."

Tenten just stared at him. That sounded so obvious when said out loud. "When did you get so smart, Lee?"

Lee shrugged and shot her a thumbs-up. "Who says I wasn't before?"

Tenten let out a fake exasperated sigh. "Fine, fine. Let's just spar."

"YOSH!"

* * *

She had spent the rest of the weekend wandering the markets with Choko by her side.

"I'm looking for a weapon Choko. _The_ Weapon." Tenten had said, moving her hands in the air to try to illustrate her weapon of choice.

"What weapon? You'll have to be more specific than that Tenten." Choko said, sighing.

"A good weapon."

Choko just raised her eyebrows. "You do know your dad is literally the biggest weapon shop owner in Konoha, right?"

"I know, I know." Tenten had already spent all morning looking for her perfect weapon in her father's shop. She hadn't found anything she had particularly wanted though. "But I couldn't find anything that was..." her eyes flashed in excitement. "_The one._"

Choko sighed again, rolled her eyes, and pulled her off to a weapon stand.

And so, hours and hours passed in the market, but nothing had caught Tenten's eye.

"Tenten. I'm sorry, but there's literally no hope for this anymore." Choko said, looking at her with a deadpan look in her eye.

Tenten wasn't discouraged. "It's fine. I'll just look somewhere else then."

"Then you'll have to do it without me Tenten. I've gotta leave now, my mom will kill me otherwise." Choko said, looking at the watch around her wrist. "It's already 8 o' clock!"

"Ha, I know someone who stays up until 12! This isn't a joke for me. There's no way I'm going to go home tonight without a weapon!" Tenten stated smugly.

Choko just looked at her. "Sure Tenten."

Tenten had, unfortunately, returned home empty handed that night.

"End of year testing is today." Eito-sensei said on the first day of the last week of school. It was almost the end of their first year, and next year would be their last year before they were made genin. "We'll be testing your taijutsu and your ninjutsu. You'll be given points out of a 100 based on your ability." He looked around the room. "First is taijutsu."

Tenten hummed in thought as her classmates shuffled and looked at each other. Taijutsu almost always meant that you were going against someone else in the class.

"I've already decided who you're going against for an accurate representation of your taijutsu ability. The front board will list you and your opponent and your pair number. I'll call out numbers in five minutes, so know who you're going against."

The class raced to the front of the room, including Tenten.

She finally spotted her name on the board. Huh. She was going against someone named Rin. They were number 6. Tenten's eyes moved to number 7 and her eyes widened in shock.

Lee was going against Neji.

It was actually to be expected. To show Neji's skill level, they had to pair him up with someone adequate to him. And Lee, while far less than adequate (It almost hurt to admit), was the next best in Taijutsu. But still… Neji would probably utterly crush anyone that went against him with his juken. They should have paired Lee with someone that would show his skill level instead. Lee could probably take down anyone else in the room except for maybe her. She knew how Lee attacked, so she could win some spars. Neji didn't need to know how anyone attacked to win. But Lee definitely didn't know how Neji attacked, which was a huge problem for him.

But if Lee held off Neji for somewhat long… than it would actually make Lee look pretty good.

Tenten looked at Lee, who was simultaneously currently cheering in happiness _and_ dreading the fact that he could go against Neji, his Eternal Rival. _This can go both ways._ She thought.

Eito-Sensei had started calling out the numbers slowly, and soon, it was her turn. She had walked into the room with Rin, away from the watching crowd of students, who Eito-Sensei thought would affect the performance of the sparrers.

As soon as they reached the middle of the somewhat small stadium, Tenten slid down into standard Taijutsu form. Rin did the same.

And then Rin shot forward. Tenten dodged a kick to the shin and slammed her gut with a straightforward punch.

But her all wasn't in it. She was wondering about how the match with Neji and Lee would go instead. Too bad she couldn't see it… she would have to ask Lee all about it later.

She narrowly dodged a punch to the shoulder, and Tenten had then ended the match with a quick flowing toss of Rin's whole body, something that Lee had taught her in their spars.

She had walked out of the room with Rin, but the crowd of classmates weren't focusing on her or Rin, but Lee and Neji. Lee shot her a grin as he entered the room, and Tenten smiled tentatively at him back. Unlike Lee, Neji didn't look at anyone as he entered the room.

It felt like forever when Lee and Neji had came out of the room. Neji had no scratches on him.

Lee had many.

When Lee looked at Tenten, all he did was grin at her. Tenten just looked at him, not signaling anything back.

At the end of the day, after their Taijutsu and Ninjutsu exams, they were given their scores on a slip of paper.

Tenten had gotten a 100. She had aced her Taijutsu exam and her Ninjutsu exam.

Neji had also gotten a 100. He had also aced his Taijutsu exam and his Ninjutsu exam.

Lee had gotten a 35. He had showed adequate Taijutsu for being able to go against Neji for as long as he had, but he had failed his ninjutsu exam.

"It was expected Tenten." Lee had said on the walk home from school.

Tenten had just looked at him worriedly.

"Don't look at me with pity Tenten!" Lee had said somewhat pleading and somewhat as an order.

"Well, at least you passed, right Lee?" She had thought that was the right thing to say, since it would give Lee some hope in the dark, but it didn't look like it was.

Lee stayed silent for a little while before speaking up. "Tenten, do you know that the only reason they're letting me pass to next year is because they need someone as their dead last? And because someone had to take pity on me to let me pass?"

Tenten had certainly not known that. "What?"

"Yes." Lee said, looking down onto the ground quickly, but not before Tenten could see the tears in his eyes.

It stunned her. Lee, crying? She had never seen Lee cry. He was always the one encouraging her, a beacon of light and hope. Never had she seen him like this.

It brought tears to her eyes too.

Lee stopped and clenched his hands. "I'm not sad! I'm not sad because I lost against Neji!"

"I know Lee. It's okay." Tenten wasn't experienced in comforting people. It was always _Lee_ comforting _her_, not the other way around.

"I don't want anyone's pity! I want to do things on my own!" He shouted at the ground. "I don't want anyone's pity… tell me Tenten, why was I born like this? People always have to help me… but- but, I don't want anyone's pity, I-I don't need anyone's pity. I don't need…" Tears streamed down his face, but Lee hid them from Tenten and looked at the ground. "I-I don't need—"

Tenten shushed him and placed a hand on his shoulder, before pulling him in for a hug.

They had stayed for that for a long time before Lee pulled away, brushing off his tears. "Thank you Tenten."

She just smiled. "It's hard to stay strong every day Lee. Sometimes you need to let it out."

Lee smiled back at her, somewhat sadly.

That day, the two friends were glad to have each other.

* * *

This chapter was originally going to have something else in it, but I decided it was too big of a something, and it needed it's own chapter. Thanks for reading!


	4. Chapter 3

I'm back, and it's pretty early again. It's a long chapter, and it's not spellchecked or checked for typos, so sorry if there's anything a bit off. Tell me how you liked this chapter in the reviews please :)

* * *

The last year of the academy had come by quickly and Tenten didn't know whether to be happy or scared that it would all be over so soon.

All she had done this year was just laze around and study a couple of books. But Tenten _was_ proud of some things. She had learned how to use many more weapons (courtesy of her dad) and she was introduced to something else that wasn't as "out there" like Kunai, shuriken, swords, or senbon: Wire. It was something that was subtle and something that she had not really considered a weapon before. Wire could be laced everywhere, capturing your enemy efficiently with other weapons such as kunai. Add a couple of explosion tags, and who knew of the endless possibilities and variations Tenten could make.

Seals was also something that Tenten had taken interest in. Weapons and sealings went together like nothing else did, and there was a world full of possibilities. But Tenten had no idea where to start. All she could do was make her basic seals and place things in them, but she definitely didn't know how to write more complicated ones.

So, Tenten had gone to the library and looked around for bigger seals. She had copied them over and over to make at least 30 of her own seals (for practice). Her hand hurt like crazy, but she had persisted, forcing herself to memorize the pattern.

But, doing something was one thing, and understanding it was another.

So, when she had tried to ink her own complicated seals that could hold a multiple array of items in a specific order without a base like the book had given her, it hadn't really ended well.

She ended up going to the library to get a book _about_ sealing instead of _how_ to seal.

_Huh. _Tenten thought as soon as she finished reading it. Sealing was a lot more complicated than she thought. It wasn't just some_thing_ that you painted on paper for no reason. It was a language, a code, something that had a shape and a will. If one thing was wrong, you got the whole thing wrong, and that was not exciting for Tenten.

It wasn't as basic as it seemed either. If you wanted a bigger seal, you couldn't just write bigger kanji and expect it to work. You had to exert more chakra into the seal to hold the items in whatever pocket dimension, and thus, the bigger the seal, the more chakra you needed. The more complicated the seal, the more intricate the kanji became.

And she also learnt to never, ever, put something alive and breathing into a seal. That resulted in immediate death.

So, Tenten had started off small this time, and, grew big, instead of jumping to the more complicated seals. She now could paint her own seals, however big she needed (as long as she had enough chakra), and had been slowly starting to store all her weapons in one sealing scroll, that she now could pull out whatever weapon she wanted instead of pulling out everything all at once.

It also looked really cool in front of her classmates too, whenever she pulled something out of "thin air" when they sparred. Apparently learning how to seal was not something most of her classmates did in their free time.

* * *

By the time the end of the year had come around, the whole class was stressing over the Genin exam. Eito-Sensei had told them that their year was going to be a little bit "different" than usual. The usual final was just making a basic henge and an illusionary clone, but apparently some higher ups had taken a look at their class and decided that that was not the best way to go in testing the final year for their class.

Tenten had a suspicious feeling that Lee was somehow part of the reason why they made their decision.

"I'm just grateful they gave me a chance." Lee said when he heard. But Tenten could tell he didn't like the idea of getting pitied.

Then one day when Tenten had entered class and sat down in her seat, Eito-Sensei had burst the bubble about the final.

"We will be having a two-part exam for your final." Eito-Sensei said. The class groaned. They all had hated the two-part exam last year. There were a _lot_ of low scores.

"The first part will be a mission. Everyone in this room will have to take a mission with a group of three like real genin do. You will be judged based on how you behave, how you communicate with your teammates, how you use your skills, and how you handle the situation. Then, for your second part, you will spar with a classmate.

"Are we clear?"

"YES!" The class said in unison.

Eito-sensei nodded. "Good. The first part of the final is today."

Tenten's jaw dropped, and so did the jaws of the rest of the class. Except for Neji of course.

But what?! _He didn't even tell us?!_ Tenten screamed internally. She could have prepared and asked around for how genin missions were like or something! Anything would have been better than this!

Tenten looked at Eito-Sensei who had a gleam of amusement in his eye. _Of course, he's silently laughing at us._

"What? Eito-Sensei! You can't do this to us!"

"Eito-Sensei!"

"NOOOOO!"

Eito-Sensei cleared his throat and the class fell silent. "Quiet. Today is your mission and that is final. Genin also sometimes have unexpected situations like this. And as expected, you have all your necessary supplies with you right now. If you don't, raise your hand."

More than half of the class hesitantly raised their hands.

Eito-Sensei just sighed exasperatedly. "Go get your supplies and come back by noon. If you're not here, the final will start without you, and you fail."

The whole class rushed out, and Tenten followed. She had everything with her, but she really had nothing else to do in the class. And it was 3 hours of free time! Tenten wasn't gonna give that away to sit in the classroom alone with Eito-Sensei.

It was noon, and almost everyone was in the class. Tenten had gotten some ramen at a place called Ichiraku's just in case she didn't get to eat while on the mission. Who knew how long it would take? Plus, it was always smart to go on duty with a full stomach, Tenten had read. Well, unless you threw up.

She hoped that wouldn't happen.

"Ok then. I'll be calling out your groups now." Eito-Sensei said, snapping everyone out of whatever mood they were in. "These groups are randomized, so don't complain if you're on a group you don't like. Genin groups have to deal with people they don't like too."

The class shuffled and looked at each other, but Tenten knew that was probably a lie. Groups were _never_ "randomized". Ha! That was a joke. Everything was put together for a reason at the academy.

Eito-Sensei then started to list of the groups.

Tenten droned everything out until she heard her name.

"Tenten. Kenzou." Tenten made eye contact with her fellow classmate. "And Neji." Tenten lurched in her own seat when she heard the name.

_Neji? _

A flurry of emotions was sent through her.

Well… a part of her was happy that Neji was on her team. It meant that her team would _definitely _pass. But part of her was mad. It meant that she wouldn't be able to showcase her skills because _Neji_ would do _everything_. And make her look bad compared to him.

And everything was a competition between her and Neji. What if they didn't "communicate" well and then she failed? That was a possibility. Everything was a possibility!

Tenten put her hand to her forehead. That meant she had to put aside whatever dislike she had for him and cooperate to pass.

That probably was going to be the hardest part of the mission, she thought now.

That was also probably why Eito-Sensei had put them in a group together. He knew that she and Neji had a little competition going on between them. Well, Lee had a bigger rivalry with Neji than Tenten did, but at least Lee respected Neji and was nice to him.

Tenten really wasn't.

_He probably put us together to see if we would cooperate or not! That Eito-Sensei… _Tenten sighed internally. _Well, I'll show him. _

_Me and Neji can cooperate! We'll be the best team!_ Boy, Tenten thought she would never think those words.

She snapped out of it when her eyes met Neji's white ones. A silent agreement passed through them.

Well, she guessed she could put aside her complaints for the greater good.

* * *

When they had opened the envelope with their mission, Tenten had read it out loud so Kenzou and Neji could hear too.

"Go to Saturo at his shop. He needs help requiring the capture of a certain thing. Saturo will tell you more details." Tenten said, frowning. "And then here's the address. That's it."

Neji frowned. "What?"

Tenten shrugged. "Here, look at it yourself." Neji took the paper from her, and him and Kenzou both read through it.

"I guess we just go to Saturo then." Kenzou said.

* * *

They got to the address on the paper.

"Huh. I've passed through this street before." Kenzou said when they landed on the ground, sand skittering around them. The shop was near the edge of the forest in Konoha, a strange place for any merchandise.

It was a normal shop though, with a deep purple-brownish covering that had huge kanji that said 'Saturo's Crops'._ What an odd name, _she thought.

Neji didn't say anything and just pushed through the front doors. Tenten and Kenzou followed.

A bald man wearing a dark blue robe with a pale blue headband wrapped around his forehead turned around to them. He had an old wrinkly face with various laugh lines around his mouth and crinkles around his eyes. His dark eyes glittered when he saw them.

"Who do we have here?" he asked.

Tenten bowed. "We're students from the academy." She opened her mouth to explain the situation when Neji cut her off.

"We've been informed of a Saturo-san that needs our help seeking a certain thing." Neji said, straightening from his bow. "Do you happen to know where Saturo-san is?"

Dang. Tenten was impressed. Neji was usually silent as a rock and rude as hell, but apparently, he actually spoke and had good manners.

"You're looking at him boy!" The bald man said laughing. "And yes, I do need your help." Said Saturo, his face darkening.

"What happened Saturo-san?" Tenten asked, frowning.

"Well, it's really troubling." Saturo said. "But…

"I need you to find my cat."

Neji and Tenten went silent, and Kenzou choked in the back.

"What?" She said, incredulously.

"My poor cat, Bon-bon, has gone missing." Saturo said sighing. "She's been missing for the last two days. Who knows how she is right now out there, and how she's doing?" He sighed again. "She's a black cat, and has a small pink bow on her. Please find her."

Tenten swallowed her incredulity. "Right away Sir."

* * *

As soon as Neji, Tenten and Kenzou walked out of the store to go look for "Bon-bon", Tenten had immediately expressed her dissatisfaction.

"A cat. They want us to find a cat!" Tenten moaned.

Kenzou just sighed. "I can't believe this. I thought we would do something… cool." He glanced at Neji. "Right Neji?"

Neji let out a small sigh. "Well… This is not what I expected."

"No kidding!" Tenten whined. "How is this even supposed to 'display' our skill set?"

Kenzou shrugged. "Let's just go and find this cat. At least we can get recognized for fastest mission done ever."

Tenten smiled at that. "Right."

* * *

They looked everywhere for that stupid cat.

_Everywhere._

Since this was more of a "find and locate" type of gig, they firstly relied more on Neji and his Byakugan to search everywhere in the range around the shop for any cat. The only cats they found didn't have a bow, were already owned by someone else, or weren't even black.

Then they had split up and looked through the whole small sector that the shop was in. And then the bigger sector.

Neji kept pushing and pushing on his Byakugan and how far it could see, straining his eyes greatly.

"It's fine." He muttered and looked at Tenten strangely when she had asked about it. Tenten scoffed internally. She wasn't a _sadist_ to not ask about how he was doing. "Just find the cat."

But three hours later and they were still nowhere.

Then Kenzou came, carrying a cat in his hands.

But it wasn't a black cat. It was a _white_ cat.

"Kenzou. That's not Bon-bon!" Tenten exclaimed. Kenzou rolled his eyes.

"I know it isn't. But look at what else I have." He brought out a tube of black paint from his back pocket, and Tenten looked at him in disbelief.

"We're not doing that."

"Doing what?" Kenzou asked innocently.

"That! That's practically cheating!" She spluttered. "And plus, that's a horrible idea! Saturo-san's not an idiot!"

"Relax! We'll show him the cat, get the mission signed as complete, and then come back and steal the cat and set it free again! No one will ever know if they come to check up on the cat, because the cat will never be there."

Tenten looked over at Neji, who said nothing.

"… Are you seriously considering this right now Neji?"

Neji's eyes narrowed. "What? No. What do you take me for?" He looked towards Kenzou and then scowled.

Kenzou visibly shrank. "But what if we never find the stupid cat?"

"We can't cheat the system!"

"What if we name this cat Bon-bon too? It'll technically be Bon-bon." Kenzou exclaimed.

"No." Neji deadpanned.

"We can't risk it!" Tenten cried.

"Come on guys, It's not just any paint! It's fabric pai—"

"ENOUGH!" Neji said.

Tenten and Kenzou quieted.

"Keep on looking for the cat. We're not painting the white cat black and naming it Bon-bon." Neji paused. "Tenten."

She looked at him. "Yeah?"

"Is there anywhere we haven't looked?"

"Well other than the chance Bon-bon might have been kidnapped, we've looked pretty much everywhere." Tenten said, before hesitating. "Wait. We haven't looked through the forest."

"Then that's where we're going next." Neji said. "Let's go."

* * *

When they got to the forest, Neji had used his Byakugan first thing.

"Three cats." Neji said when he had finished looking through the whole forest with his Byakugan.

Tenten nodded. "Let's split up."

They all ran off in separate directions, each taking responsibility for one of the cats. She darted through the branches as fast as she could, savoring the feeling of the wind on her face. It felt good, running through the trees. It made her feel free.

When Tenten got to the spot that Neji had told her about, she landed in the middle of the ground and looked up around for the cat. She spotted her immediately, a black fur ball with a bright pink bow curled up on one of the highest branches. Tenten wondered why it climbed up so high. "Bon-bon!" she exclaimed loudly.

She immediately darted up to the tree and took Bob-bon into her hands, and jumped back down onto the ground. "Aw, what are you doing so far into the forest, huh?" Tenten said, scratching the absolutely _adorable _black cat. Bon-bon meowed loudly. "You got stuck up in a tree and were too scared to come down, huh?" she cooed. The cat stopped purring in her hands.

"Bon-bon?" The cat meowed in fear and Tenten frowned, turning around to the object of fear. Tenten's eyes widened in shock.

An _extremely_ large black striped orange cat that was easily a few 8 feet taller than her growled and opened its mouth, saliva dripping off of each large canine and into its dark mouth. Its teeth were extremely sharp. _Too_ sharp.

_Tiger_.

So that's why the cat got scared into the tree.

The first thing Tenten tried to do when the Tiger lunged at her was _run_. _Body Flicker. Body Flicker! BODY FLICKER! _Her mind shouted at her. But there was literally no point. Tenten knew that she wouldn't be fast enough to escape it.

She would have been caught if it had not been for Neji who came out of nowhere and punched the tiger straight on the side of its face. The tiger landed a few feet away, and Tenten stared in horror at Neji's scratched and bloodied fist. She had never seen Neji get hurt. _Ever._

Her eyes widened as Neji stood up and turned to look at her. His cold white eyes were even more menacing with the Byakugan activated. "Don't freeze." He stated, narrowing his eyes at her. He looked at the Tiger, who growled and got up, running back at them, and then Neji glanced at her again. "Get up and don't get in my way."

Tenten nodded, shakily, dazed as Neji darted towards the tiger. She got up, hastily, and looked around to see if Kenzou had arrived as well.

He was, and Tenten hurried over to him and handed him the cat. "Keep Bon-bon safe." Kenzou just nodded, eyes wide and frozen.

Tenten looked over at Neji, who was trying to keep his defense up against the tiger. It was expected, the tiger was _huge_. It was freaking _12 feet tall_.

But still… she couldn't believe she freezed. Tenten had always felt that she was ready to face something like this, but now, when she was really faced with something, she had freezed. _Freezed_.

_UGH!_ Tenten growled internally, darting in a second after Neji landed a blow under the tiger's jaw. The tiger stood up, no signs of visible damage. Neji just sighed and then slid into a different stance than before. The tiger lunged, and Neji's eyes flashed as he hit several different parts of the tiger. He moved so fast that Tenten couldn't even see him, but she stared anyway at how graceful he looked. The tiger slumped a little, resting on one paw, and Tenten's eyes widened. _What did Neji do to stop it?!_

Her thoughts were erased when the tiger slowly got up. She heard Neji curse, and she glanced at him before darting next to him.

"Earth Wall!" She cried placing her hands on the ground. The ground shook and a wall of earth shot up to block the tiger. Tenten glanced over at Neji, who looked at her skeptically. She ignored him and rose 3 more walls around the Tiger in vain. "Run!" She cried to Kenzou. Kenzou darted off and Tenten looked back to see the Tiger break through the walls a few seconds after. She hoped the tiger didn't notice one of them was missing.

Tenten than quickly unsealed a huge sheet of chicken wire. It pricked her hands, but she took it and placed it between some trees, using kunai to hold it in place.

"Neji! Over here!" She yelled.

Neji looked at her, and for a moment she thought he was going to ignore her, but he nodded slightly in her direction in understanding. Then he ran, the tiger charging after him. He slid underneath the chicken wire, still running. The tiger just roared and followed, not noticing the wire at all. When it finally did notice, it was too big and it was going too fast to stop in time. It charged right through it like it was a spiderweb, and then it stopped, howling in pain and clawing at its face.

_Ok then, weapon, weapon, weapon._ The tiger was distracted right now, so now she needed something that could pierce thick skin and she needed enough force. Big weapons needed a lot of force. So, she needed something sharp and light.

Tenten unsealed huge poisoned senbon from her sealing scroll. Senbon were made to put anything down, and even if they couldn't kill, she had tipped the senbon with poison before sealing it into her scroll anyway.

She waited as Neji rushed forward and right before he slammed the momentarily distracted tiger head down with his leg, Tenten fired the senbon. They sliced through the air and hit exactly where Tenten had watched Neji hit before when he had momentarily (_paralyzed?_) brought down the tiger. Neji must have hit some pressure and acupuncture spots then, and acupuncture was what senbon were literally made for. The tiger must have had _some_ internal damage there from before from Neji's juken. Now, with the force of Neji's leg to bring the tiger down, the senbon would ensure that the tiger _stayed_ down.

Neji then brought his leg down, completely crushing the tiger's head into the ground, cracking it and sending chunks of earth into the air. Dust filled the area, and Tenten coughed and covered her face.

The dust cleared and Neji stood. Tenten watched his long brown hair shift into place before she looked back at the fallen giant tiger. Senbon jutted from the tiger at several angles, and the tiger's face was slack and bloody, cuts covering it everywhere.

Tenten almost felt sorry for it. _Almost._ It _had_ tried to kill her.

Neji turned and looked at her, his face still expressionless as it had been during the whole duration of the 5-minute fight. "Let's go." He said, darting off.

Tenten stayed in the spot in front of the giant tiger for a bit longer. She couldn't believe everything that had happened had only happened in the course of _5_ _minutes_. But she guessed that that's how real life and death situations were. Quick. You had to _react_ quick.

Tenten hadn't. She hadn't even figured out the tiger was even sneaking up on her originally. The pit in Tenten's stomach grew deeper as she slowly realized and recounted her mistakes in the fight. She sighed internally. She really wished she had something more "out there"… something that allowed her to attack head on like Neji, instead of lounging back and throwing weapons like senbon.

_Neji. _Tenten thought. He had reacted so calmly and used his reflexes to his ability so well. And his taijutsu was hands down amazing.

She now understood why Lee respected Neji so much.

Tenten was starting to respect him as well.

She then sighed and darted off through the trees, following the same path they had taken into the forest.

* * *

Tenten reached back to the edge of the forest near Saturo's shop to see Neji and Kenzou standing, waiting for her. Kenzou held Bon-bon in his arms and looked at Tenten nervously as she landed next to him. They stood there in silence before Kenzou spoke up. "So, are you guys ok?" They both nodded. "And the tiger?" Kenzou asked.

"The tiger's dead." Neji answered coolly, looking away.

Kenzou's eyes widened in awe. "Of course, _you_ guys killed it." His eyes turned down. "Sorry that I didn't help."

Neji's face remained expressionless. "It's fine. You would have just gotten in our way." He said bluntly.

Kenzou quieted.

"That's not nice." Tenten said, more to herself than to Neji.

Neji ignored her.

They entered the shop and Bon-bon jumped out of Kenzou's arms and onto the counter, meowing lazily.

"You found my Bon-bon!" Saturo said, taking Bon-bon into his arms, his eyes crinkling. "Where was she?"

"Ah, we found her in the forest." Tenten said. "It was a pretty dangerous place to be." She admitted.

Saturo frowned and looked down at Bon-bon. "The forest? I told you to never go there." He said, scolding Bon-bon.

Tenten hesitated before speaking up. "Do you happen to know of any great tigers in the forest Saturo-san? We happened to have an encounter with one."

"Well... yes. There are a couple of great tigers, but they shouldn't be that aggressive." He said, smiling at them.

This time the smile felt a little creepy.

"Uh, well, we need you to sign this form in completion of the mission, Saturo-san." Kenzou said, holding the envelope out awkwardly.

"Alright." Saturo said, signing it with a pen and handing it off to Neji.

"We'll be leaving now Saturo-san. Thank you for the mission." Neji said all too formally.

"Wait." Saturo said, waving his hand and beckoning them to come closer.

"You know, this shop is a collector's shop." Saturo said, gesturing to the many items around him. "And since you three helped me find my cat Bon-bon, why don't you look around and choose something to take home?"

Tenten looked to Kenzou and Neji. "What? Really?"

"Of course! Anything for the kids who helped save Bon-bon." He said, laughing. "Take all the time you want."

They just stood there for a while before Kenzou shrugged and went on ahead to explore the shop. Neji begrudgingly followed him.

Tenten's eyes went straight through all the old boxes and the ancient items that were placed throughout the shop. She hadn't paid attention too much before because of her focus on what the mission was going to be, but there were some really weird things here.

Like a boar horn kazoo from the Village Hidden in the Sand. Was such an invention even possible?

There were old maps and books and a lot of knowledge on the walls, and Tenten might have picked one of the books if she hadn't noticed the weapon section in the back. Her eyes glittered with excitement.

What type of weapons were they? Where were they from?

She was interrupted from her thoughts when Kenzou had went up to the front and shown Saturo what he had wanted: A cube shaped block that was engraved 3 by 3 on each of its 6 sides. It shifted weirdly when you moved the blocks.

Neji had found what he wanted next: A book on taijutsu from over the world. Huh. So Neji was a reading type.

Tenten was the only one left, but she hadn't decided on anything at all. She ignored the looks from Kenzou and Neji as she looked through all the weapons.

She opened a dark green case to see an extremely beautiful arrow made of green crystal for the tip. But Tenten knew she would probably just keep an arrow like that for decoration and not for usage, so she put it to the side and moved on. Everything was really old and not for usage or either not even a weapon.

And then she saw it.

Her eyes then rested on top of a sheathed sword in a case with a strange design. Tenten took it into her hands, unsheathing it, revealing a long silver sword with a strange pattern on the side and a leather wrapped handle.

Huh. That looked plenty _usable_. It didn't even look that old. It actually looked pretty good.

Tenten grinned as she felt the leather and the sword. It felt great in her hands.

Like it was _made_ for her. But that was probably an overstatement.

"Uh, Tenten? We gotta go." Kenzou called out from the front.

Tenten sheathed the sword and pulled the case off the rack, setting it in and closing it. She hefted it through the shop and onto the counter.

"Here Saturo-san!" Tenten exclaimed, smiling. "I want this!"

Saturo-san's eyes widened as he opened the case. "Oh wow. It's been a long time since I looked at this." He muttered. The old man looked up at her with a smile. "You know, I got this sword a long time ago. It's very old, and very special."

Tenten just looked at him. _Old?_ It didn't look that old to her. "Well, it looks pretty good to me." She said, shrugging.

Saturo laughed. "Of course! This sword has always retained its beauty." He stopped smiling and ran his hands over the sheath of the sword. "I would be sad to see it go."

_Of course._ If the sword was that special, why would he give it to someone as random as her? Why would he give it away at all? It obviously meant something to him, and Tenten knew she shouldn't have tried to take advantage of the opportunity and take something so big and probably costly from him.

"I'm sorry Saturo-san." Tenten said gulping. "If you don't want to give away the sword, you can keep it." She said, taking off her hands from the counter.

"Did I ever say that?" Saturo said looking at her, amused. "You can keep the sword. I have to keep my word after all."

Tenten's smile grew exponentially. "R-really?!"

Saturo-san smiled. "I would never use it, and it would waste away in the shop. But you have a great future ahead of you as a weapon master. So, use it well." Saturo said.

Tenten grinned. "Okay Saturo-san. Thank you!"

Only after the she had walked out of the shop did she realize something: how did Saturo-san know she wanted to be a weapon master?

* * *

When they arrived back at the academy, Eito-Sensei had told them that only 2 teams that had finished before them, surprisingly. He then asked for a short briefing of the mission.

So, Tenten had told Eito-Sensei everything that had happened, about the forest, Bon-bon, and the great tiger.

Eito-Sensei's eyes just grew wider and wider.

"You fought a great tiger?" He asked when she finished talking. "How did you escape?"

"Uh… we killed it." Tenten finished lamely.

Eito-Sensei just looked at them. "Tell me where you encountered it."

Neji explained that one, and Tenten just nodded along.

Eito-Sensei sighed. "How annoying…" He muttered and rubbed his forehead. "A great tiger..." He looked back down at them and sighed again. "You guys can go home for now."

"Wait, did we pass?" Kenzou said timidly.

"Yes. You did pass. But we'll look into the tiger at the forest and see of how we can dispose of it." Eito-Sensei said. "Now go home."

Later, Eito-Sensei and a couple of other teachers had gone to the same forest to look for the great tiger. When they found it, it was dead, with poisoned senbon sticking out of it from all angles at various different pressure points, hit with deadly accuracy only a weapon master had. Its face was crushed as well, and it was bleeding internally from internal damage to the organs that could only be done by the renown gentle fist.

_Neji and Tenten_. Eito-Sensei had thought, smirking. They had cooperated. And they had cooperated well.

* * *

Thank you for reading! Leave reviews! And Tenten will deal more with the sword next chapter. I wrote this chapter the way I did because in canon Tenten respects and admiring Neji a lot, but in this fic, Tenten really hates on Neji a lot lol. So I wanted to give her a _reason_ to start respecting and admiring Neji like she did in canon, instead of making her just admire Neji for no reason when he's a plain jerk. But still, I will always love Neji :)


	5. Chapter 4

I'm so sorry for being super late with this chapter. I was really busy so I didn't really have to time to write for a while.

* * *

When her classmates had found out about what happened with Tenten's team's mission, they had pestered her to no end.

"OH MY GOSH TENTEN. How the _heck_ did you fight a great tiger!?"

"I can't believe that you went against _that_!"

"I bet Neji did all of the work."

"_AH! NEJI!_ Tell me Tenten, how was he in action?! TELL ME!"

"Dang. Our mission was so boring compared to yours! I wish we got the tiger…"

For Tenten, it was exciting at first to get all the attention, but soon it just turned annoying. Neji, obviously, just had ignored everyone, and Kenzou however had just soaked up all the attention with no problem.

But when the second part of the final arrived, everyone stopped caring about the first exam and started stressing on the second. Most kids were afraid they would fail and not move on, and Tenten didn't blame them: it _was_ pretty stressful. And this time, it wasn't even in an isolated room with no one watching—it was with _everyone_. Having 20 other pairs of eyeballs staring at you didn't help you with the exam at all.

Either way, Tenten had passed the second part of the exam with flying colors.

Eito-sensei had handed out the genin headbands to whoever passed right after all the spars were over.

When Tenten had received her headband, she had beamed with happiness. Eito-Sensei just smiled at her and patted her head as she stared at the leaf symbol on the silver plate with a smile that was threatening to split her face into two.

It was _her_ headband.

_Hers_. And she had earned it.

The moment would probably forever be engraved into her memory.

The rest of the class, however, didn't meet the same fate. Only about half the class passed. The lowest passing percent in _50 years_.

Some students cried, and Eito-Sensei tried to cheer them up, saying there was always next year. It didn't really help, but some people were convinced to try next year anyway.

Neji obviously passed. Tenten herself had passed. And Lee had passed too.

Lee had been so happy when he got his headband, that he had literally been jumping off the walls. Tenten just grinned and joined him. She really couldn't ruin his happiness after all.

But Tenten was so so very glad that Lee had passed with her. If Lee hadn't passed, it would have probably hurt her just as much as it hurt him. She really couldn't deal with losing another friend in class. First Choko and then Lee?

Never.

* * *

200 years later after Naruto had been sealed in that stupid sword, the sword was finally found in the middle of the great desert. Naruto had been positively _ecstatic_. He was even happier when he found out they were going to the Land of Wind. He couldn't believe his luck.

But then it had all went downhill when he found out that Gaara wasn't the Kazekage. In fact, Gaara didn't even _exist_ yet.

They were wrong about being sent 200 years back in time. _Severely_ wrong.

Naruto had gone into near depression for a long time, when he found out that they were in the time when Madara and Hashirama were alive. And the chances of either of the reincarnations of Indra and Asura meeting him was almost zero.

And meeting another shinobi? Hell, Shinobi were so scarce back in the day that civilians used to think they were _myths_. That was not good odds for him and Kurama. Not good odds at _all_.

So, Naruto had forced himself to get used to being handled by unknown people and being sold and traded through time for whatever their temporary owner had wished.

When shinobi had grew more common, Kurama had tried reaching out to a couple of the swordsmen that they had encountered. The first guy chickened out and gave it away, so when they finally arrived at a shinobi who looked like they knew what they were doing, Naruto had talked with him. The only fault that the shinobi had was that he was too greedy and curious, and when he realized one of the tailed beasts was trapped in the sword, he had tampered with the seal. Naruto hadn't tried to stop him, curious to see what would happen. Would they get out of the seal?

Apparently not.

That shinobi had _died._

Naruto didn't even _mean_ for him to die. But it had brought Naruto back into the world with more clarity than ever. And it got him more _depressed_ than ever.

Honestly, sometimes he felt like if he didn't at least _act_ like he was happy, than all his optimism would go down the drain.

It had helped him cope through his depression throughout the years. Kurama couldn't relate because he was so used to the situation of being "sealed.".

And when a collector got a hold of the sword and brought it to Konoha, the facade finally worked: Naruto had positively _grinned_ with happiness. For the first time in forever he had hope again.

Finally, after being passed through various villages and lands, they had arrived with a collector who took them to _Konoha_. Konoha. His home. _His_ village.

But it had turned into a frown when the collector had taken the sword and shut it in its sheath and a case and stuffed it in the back of his shop on the outskirts of Konoha. For over a _hundred_ years.

So, Naruto had grown accustomed to his dark surroundings. And today, when the dark surroundings around him had filled with light once more, he hadn't even noticed. And he didn't really care.

That was something that had happened over the years as well. Realizing that anything that happened to him didn't matter. That he would always be stuck like this.

He instead covered his eyes with his hand and grumbled, turning over to his side.

"Kurama…" he whined. "Do something about the light. I'm trying to sleep here."

Kurama said nothing.

"Kurama!"

"**Get up, you brat.**"

Naruto had ignored him and turned over, sleeping face down. "The light. And _then_ we can play cards."

"**BRAT!**"

"Fine, fine, fine. Since you wanna play so badly-" But then Naruto froze when he heard a childish gasp through the seal.

He swiveled up toward the light, missing the face when the sheath had been shut on the sword once again. Naruto sighed, but then cringed when he felt the sword suddenly being picked up and then hefted onto a flat surface of some sort, rocking him in the process.

"Oy! Watch where you're going, you nimrod!" Naruto yelled out. More for the sake of yelling then anything else.

He quieted, getting up when he heard some words being spoken on the outside, from two different voices. Naruto couldn't quite make them out with both the sheath and the case placed on the sword, but he had good idea about what was happening. The sword was probably being sold off again.

"Kurama, what happen-" Naruto was cut off when the case opened and a voice filtered through. A voice of a familiar old geezer.

Naruto's eyes widened in disbelief.

"That guy's still _alive?_ Is he even human?"

Kurama scowled. "**That is _not_ what I called you for, Naruto.**"

Naruto frowned, but then shushed Kurama. "Wait."

"You can keep the sword. I have to keep my word after all." The geezer continued.

"R-really?!" The other voice said.

Naruto frowned at the familiarity of the voice, a voice he hadn't heard in hundreds of years. "Wait, Kurama, is that—"

"I would never use it, and it would waste away in the shop." The old geezer Saturo said, cutting him off. "But you have a great future ahead of you as a weapon master. So, use it well."

Naruto's eyes widened. _Weapon master._

"Okay Saturo-san. Thank you!"

Naruto slid back onto the ground.

_Tenten_.

Tenten had found the sword.

* * *

Naruto had known it was her immediately. He only had a couple of friends his age, mostly in the Konoha 12, so Tenten's voice was unmistakable.

And he knew he was right when everyone had addressed her as Tenten. And when Tenten had unsheathed the sword to show her father, he had seen her gray eyes and those two little buns resting upon her head. There was literally no way it _wasn't _Tenten.

And when he heard Neji's voice when they had went back to the academy from the old geezer's collector shop, he was even _more_ shocked.

The time must have been before Neji's death. And with the way their voices sounded, he guessed that they were Genin, and if not, probably in their late years in the academy.

"God Kurama. Can you believe this?"

Kurama just shrugged. "**You're getting way too excited Naruto.**"

Naruto ignored the statement. "After all these years, who would have thought we would have been found by someone we knew?"

Kurama just grinned. "**Never.**"

Honestly, Tenten wasn't the _worst_ option that he could have got for someone to find him. He could have got someone who didn't use weapons at all. And Tenten was a _weapon master_. That must have meant something, right?

Although, he couldn't say Tenten was the best option either. He didn't know Tenten's skill level as a genin, but when she was older she was far behind others, only occasionally taking missions when it was extremely necessary. To this day, he never knew why her interest had dwindled. But then again, Tenten had grew less serious about being a ninja over time, dedicating her time to her father's weapon shop, unlike someone like Sakura who had only grown more serious over time.

He had never really sparred with Tenten before either, and he had always found her slightly annoying too. He never hung out with her one-to-one like he had with Neji and Lee. Tenten was always someone who he ate meals with when he was out with Team Gai or the Konoha 12.

He was definitely not the best of friends with her.

Literally all he knew about her was that she was a weapon master, and that she was interested in sealing.

But he had literally also almost _never_ seen her really in action before. And what _was_ a weapon master? He had never heard of anyone else being a weapon master except for Tenten, and since he had never seen her in action, he didn't even know what _that_ looked like either. Was a weapon master just someone who threw around weapons? Because when she had gone against Temari in the chunin exams, she had practically failed at that.

But then again, it was a horrible match up… Tenten couldn't have done anything.

"Ugh Kurama!" Naruto said, running his hands though his hair. "I can't believe this!"

"**You already said that.**" Kurama said dryly.

"Not that, you furball! I mean, I can't believe I literally know nothing about Tenten! She was literally part of the Konoha 11!"

"**That's on you, not me.**"

Naruto had just glared at Kurama.

But then he had heard the door open to whatever room Tenten had placed the sword in, and close, and Naruto and Kurama both went silent.

Tenten closed her bedroom door behind her. He room was simple enough, with a whole wall dedicated to shelves of books, a desk and a chair, and her bed. And there were posters of the legendary Tsunade-sama on the walls. _Obviously._

Her eyes went right towards the black case sitting on her desk, her face brightening immediately. She didn't have time before, but now since the academy year was finally over, she had a weekend to test the sword out.

Really, Tenten didn't think the weekend was a good enough time for a "break" that the new genin needed. Really? Two days? The academy was seriously messed up.

Whatever. She had to settle for it.

She opened the black velvet box and ran her hands over the engraved ivory black sheath. Tenten took the sword in her hands and unsheathed it, opening her mouth in awe again, staring at the sword.

Saturo-san had said it was really old, but it didn't look old at all. Really, it looked like it had been made yesterday. The only trace of otherwise was the dust that had been caked on the case.

_Well, I'll just bring the sword to the back with me._ Tenten thought, sheathing the sword.

"NO! Please don't sheath the-" the little voice was cut off when Tenten had sheathed the sword completely.

Tenten blinked and looked around, surprised. Had she just heard something?

* * *

Thankfully, Tenten had opened the case and unsheathed the sword later on. This time they were in what Naruto thought was probably the backyard. He stared at the multiple targets strewn and hung across various locations through the trees, all with deep scars etched into the bullseyes.

He didn't say anything when Tenten started playing around with the sword, using different stances and flipping through books that she had brought down from her room's library.

Her hands would move through the air, and Naruto would just stare in silence as she slashed through nothing. It felt so _good_ to be used again. After they had been shut in that black case for a 100 years, him and Kurama had forgotten what it felt like to be used as a sword. Of course, it was nothing compared to actually being out of the sword and doing jutsus and fighting for yourself. _Nothing_ compared to it.

He longed to feel everything from the battlefield. The adrenaline, the feeling of the wind against his sun-kissed skin and hair, the feeling of the flow of chakra through his veins as he would start to pump up his rasengan. He even missed the pain.

He missed it so much that he would honestly start a war again to feel it. He would use someone else to feel it.

But using Tenten felt _wrong_. She was a friend. And out of everything he missed in the battlefield, he had to say he missed the people around him the most.

But this was a chance, he reckoned. A chance to meet everyone, and a chance to interact with the outside world. A chance to get out of the god forsaken sword. A chance to feel something again. _And_ he could also help Tenten in the process. It would be like a deal.

A _deal_.

He stopped thinking about it as soon as Kurama's curiosity about what he was thinking started seeping into his thoughts, and he instead turned his attention back to the outside world again.

He would bring up his thoughts with Kurama later.

Now he had to look at Tenten. If she was the one who's hands were on the sword, that meant that Naruto and Kurama had to get to know her just as well. Tenten was now their only connection to the outside world, as the current owner of the sword.

But all Tenten was doing was practicing. Just blatantly doing the same thing over again, and then sitting down to mark through some pages of the books that she had gotten from her room's library, writing notes on different sections that she thought was useful.

Then she would get back up and practice again.

"Ugh." Naruto heard Tenten mutter. "This seems more like a weapon that could use a good teacher."

Of course. It wasn't like kunai or shuriken that just needed aim. A sword needed a stance, strength to wield it, and correct posture. You couldn't just read a couple of books on using a sword and expect it to work. A sword needed at least some experience.

But still, Tenten practiced anyway, only stopping when she got bored.

It was actually impressive, Naruto thought. She had picked up and used this sword for the first time, and already she had a good grasp of how to use it, in only one hour. Maybe that's what it meant to be a weapon master.

He was even more impressed when all the kunai that little Tenten threw hit the bullseye on every target every _single_ time. Even _he_ didn't have that good aim when he was younger (he thought he was a pretty awesome kid, not to brag). He only cared about looking cool as a kid and gaining attention (mostly bad attention) like the other kids did, so he had only gotten serious about his aim when he started training alongside Sasuke and Sakura as Genin.

But Tenten… it looked like she was used to hitting the bullseye every time from _years,_ if the deep etches into the target had anything to say about it.

So, she _was_ very serious about being a ninja when she was younger. What happened when she was older? Why did she not do as many missions as before?

Was it because… Neji died?

Naruto stayed quiet for a bit before speaking up. "Kurama."

"**Yeah?**"

"We need to help her."

Kurama snorted in his half-drowsy state.

"I'm serious."

"**I never said you weren't. Just, _how_ are we going to help her?**"

Naruto rolled his eyes, and stood up. "We're in a different time-line right now-"

"**Obviously.**" Kurama said, fully awake now.

Naruto just shot Kurama a look, and Kurama just shrugged and nodded for him to go on. "We're in a different timeline right now, Kurama." Naruto repeated again. "We can fix things." He said, looking up at Kurama.

"We can change this timeline. So many things happened that didn't have to happen in our life. We can change the outcome. We could save our comrades, erase whole wars..." Naruto said, muttering and jumbling all his thoughts together. "We could save _us_."

"**And who's going to help us do that?**"

Well, who else? "Tenten of course." Naruto said, looking up with a confident look on his face.

Kurama sighed. "**Naruto.**"

"Yes?"

"**Are you sure you aren't thinking of helping her... just to help yourself?**"

_To make yourself feel better? _

Naruto stiffened.

Kurama's aura darkened. "**Sealing isn't like that Naruto.**"

"You did that. You used me in the beginning! You helped me with your chakra, and I helped you in return!"

"**I _changed,_ Naruto.**"

"But you still did it in the beginning." Naruto pleaded.

Kurama sighed. "**You're right. I did. But it was wrong. You didn't willingly help me in the beginning.**"

"But I _was_ willing to help you!"

"**At the cost of something you didn't know.**" _Your sanity._

"Well, this is different. Tenten will be different. She'll be our partner. Another one with us."

"**Just to suck her down into the same hole as you're in now?**"

"We're _helping _her Kurama!"

"**What if she doesn't want help?**"

"_Anyone_ would want help!"

"**Just like you that Shinobi wanted help when he died tampering with the seal?**"

Naruto's brow furrowed. "That was an accident! I didn't mean for it to happen... I just wanted to get out of this..." Naruto croaked. "_He_ was the one who did it to himself, _he_ tampered with the sword."

"**You're confusing yourself Naruto. _We_ influenced him to do it.**"

"Ha... " Naruto said rubbing his eyes. "So what? Now we just sit here, quiet for the rest of our lives?"

Kurama paused. Then he sighed.

"**What about this... we only help Tenten when we're sure of her safety. No influencing. No... anything.**" The fox said, setting his head down over his arms. "**Ok**?"

Naruto just chuckled weakly. _She already agreed to this when she chose the sword. _We _already agreed to this when we chose her. _"When did you care so much Kurama?"

"**I just don't want you to do something you'll regret Naruto. Especially to someone that you once knew.**" Kurama said solemnly.

Naruto just stared.

* * *

It was the first day as a genin after the final exam, and Tenten had no idea whether to be bursting with happiness that she would finally be able to perform as a genin, or be extremely nervous. Luckily, she was more of the former right now.

They were choosing teams today, and Tenten was totally ready for it. She was the first to be in class, and had proudly taken a seat at one of the farther back tables. And, she was way too excited for this.

Some of the other new genin had poured into the classroom slowly, all giving her friendly smiles and waves.

Lee had also finally taken his seat next to her, and grinned. Instead of having his signature red headband around his forehead, he had instead opted to wear his genin headband there instead. He was wearing a long dress-shirt that wrapped around, and baggy pants with sandals.

Little did Tenten know that soon, she would never be seeing him in attire like the one he wore that day ever again.

"Hey Tenten!" He said, grinning, his extremely gelled and shiny hair bobbing with his every movement.

"Hey Lee." Tenten said.

"Who do you think you're getting teamed up with?" Lee whispered.

Tenten shrugged. "I honestly don't care. I would just be happy to have a team."

"Me too! I never thought I would get this chance. But it would be preferable if I could get teamed up with people I know, like you, Tenten."

Tenten nodded and smiled. "Right." She looked around the classroom to see if there were any kids that she wouldn't mind being teamed up with.

Well, it wasn't like she had a chance either. The Academy placed teams based on who worked well together, and what types of teams they wanted, like a tracking team, or attacking team.

She knew that there were a bunch of popular match ups that the Academy favored too. There was always an Ino-Shika-Cho Team, which had a member from the three famous clans of Yamanaka, Nara, and Akimichi. Tenten had even heard that the next graduating class from the Academy would have an Ino-Shika-Cho group. Other clans were more well known for their own teams as well. Clans like the Hyuga were known for their tracking abilities because of their Byakugan. But then again, the Hyuga were also known for doing very well on attacking teams as well. So, someone like Neji could really go either way.

But honestly, it wouldn't make sense to put someone like Neji, the top of their class and the best in offense and defense, in a tracking team. They couldn't afford to put their best offense in a tracking team, especially when he was leagues ahead. And plus, Neji was a prodigy. Why he was even _in_ her year and not way ahead was beyond her.

The thought had prodded her mind before, but she had ignored it.

"EVERYONE!" Tenten snapped out of her thoughts to look at Eito-Sensei.

He had the faintest smirk on his face as he looked at the class before him, and Tenten knew something was up. Or it was just Eito-Sensei being Eito-Sensei again, like he always was. Basically, him being weird.

"As you know, today is the day you'll be placed in your teams." Eito-Sensei smiled. "And I already have a list of the teams right here with me.

"I'll call out the different teams so listen up."

Eito-Sensei went on to list out a bunch of genin names that Tenten really had no affiliation with. Still, Tenten squirmed in her seat anxiously, waiting to hear her name.

"Team 11! Kenzou, Rin, & Taichi-" Tenten was almost surprised. She thought she had a high chance of being placed with Kenzou since they had worked together in part one of their genin exam. What else could their match up be now?

"Team 13! Lee, Tenten-"

"Yes!" Lee yelled and gave her a high five.

"And Neji!"

"YES!" Lee yelled even louder. _'Oh' w_as all Tenten thought.

"Your Sensei will be Might Gai!"

Tenten just stared.

What an unexpected turn of events.

* * *

Ok, honestly, it didn't surprise her as much as it should have. Neji was partnered with her in part one of the exam for a reason. And plus, Neji was the best in the class while Tenten was the best Kunoichi. So, they had paired the two highest in the class with the Dead last, who was Lee.

So now, she was sitting next to Neji and Lee, waiting for this "Might Guy" to show up. And that also meant that she had to listen to Lee try to interact with Neji in any way he could.

"I always knew that we would be on the same team for a reason Neji!" Lee said.

Neji just looked away.

"Now we aren't just eternal rivals anymore, Neji! We're eternal teammates!" Lee exclaimed, not at all deterred by Neji's state.

What Lee said had seemed to start having an effect on Neji. Neji turned, and then a look of distaste flickered over his features. Tenten was surprised at the sudden show of emotion. Somehow just thinking of being Lee's teammate for life must have stirred emotion in him.

"Shut up." Neji said, frowning.

Lee just grinned harder and looked to Tenten, beaming. Tenten really didn't understand him at all, or what was going through that thick head of his. Did he not take 'Shut up' as a deterrent?

She just shot an exasperated look at Neji and Lee.

Lee just continued grinning and looked at the both of them.

"Oh man you guys are in for a treat! We have Might Guy as our Sensei!" Lee said, bouncing with happiness.

"Might guy?" Tenten questioned, her brow frowning. "You know him?" She said, tapping her fingers against the desk in a particular pattern. Neji perked up in the corner of her eye at word of their new sensei.

"Obviously! He's the best jounin ever!" Lee said dramatically, placing his hands on his hips. "He's great at everything he does!"

"Oh so, you've only ever heard about him then." Tenten muttered.

"No, I've met him before. He's the one who taught me about the power of youth!" She heard a few kids from the other side of the room wince at Lee's level of sound.

"Shut up Lee!" A kid said.

"YOSH!"

"Lee! _Quiet_ down!" Eito-Sensei yelled from across the room.

Lee suddenly hushed, but a grin still threatened to break across his face.

How did one have so much energy?

And then someone burst open the door to the classroom with a slam. "I AM HERE!" It was like a switch, as Lee immediately shot up to look at the new person in the room, grinning like crazy. Tenten and Neji both just followed his line of sight.

A tall man stood in front of the door, where smoke was coming out of the wall, dramatizing his entrance even more. His hair was styled in a black, extremely-shiny bowl cut. The leaf headband that should have been around his forehead underneath his hair was instead wrapped around his waist, on top of a green onesie with orange puffy leg wraps. The man wore a jounin vest to top it off.

The man's face was characterized by large black eyes, a strong nose, and two very bushy eyebrows. A grin was plastered over his face.

The jounin's face immediately located Lee among the crowd of students. "My student!" He proclaimed. Lee bounced with happiness at the recognition, racing to him immediately. "Sensei!"

Tenten just stared at the scene for a bit, taking to time to register what was happening. And then she realized what was a happening, and who that man was supposed to be.

_That_ was Might guy? Their sensei? Tenten glanced at Neji, who had an unreadable expression on his face.

She looked back at Eito-sensei, who had the most annoyed look on his face as he stared at the huge dent in the wall where the jounin had slammed the door. Eito-Sensei scowled and got up. "Tenten, Lee, Neji. Your sensei, Might Guy, is here."

Neji got up first, as she moved towards her new sensei, and Tenten followed.

She glanced at the class behind her before she exited the classroom, along with the rest of her team.

"I'm Might Guy! But you can call me Sensei!" The man spoke, with just as much enthusiasm as Lee had on a daily basis.

"Right. I'm- " Tenten was cut off before she could introduce herself.

"Uh-uh-uh, not just yet my child!" Might Guy said. Tenten's eyebrows rose.

"Your introductions will come later! Now, follow me!"

Tenten just gaped as Might Guy then proceeded to jump out the window. Lee squealed and followed him.

She looked towards Neji, who had apparently also seemed to follow her thoughts. He looked at her, exasperated. She shrugged in response, and they both followed Lee out of the window.

* * *

They followed their sensei all the way to the top of one of the buildings in the village, with a nifty railing to look over the city. Tenten sat on one of the benches when she saw Lee do the same.

Lee rose his hand. "Can we do our introductions now?"

Guy sensei grinned. "Of course."

Neji just sighed. "I'm pretty sure you already know our names." When it wasn't apparent who he was talking to, he spoke up again. "Sensei."

"Of course, I do! But this is for me to know more about you all too."

Lee spoke up. "I'll go first then!"

Guy sensei nodded.

"I'm Rock Lee. My dream is to become the greatest ninja ever, without ever using genjutsu or ninjutsu!"

Neji snorted. Tenten glared at him in response.

She noticed that their sensei didn't seem to care though, as his eyes never left Lee's.

"So, a master of Taijutsu!" Lee grinned and nodded.

Tenten went next. "My name's Tenten. I want to be the world's best kunoichi, like the legendary Tsunade-sama! But instead of medicine, I want to be the world's greatest weapon master!" She said, grinning. She felt hyped up just talking about it.

"Oh-ho-ho! A weapon master, huh? That's a first!" Guy sensei said smiling.

"Now, Neji? What about you?"

Neji nodded. "My name's Neji Hyuga. I want to master the gentle fist, and learn all the secrets my clan has to offer." He hesitated when he said the last part. A strange emotion seeped into his voice. "I want to fight powerful people." His eyes looked up towards Guy. "I want to learn."

Guy sensei looked at him with a strange expression. A smile spread over his face. "That's good. Learning is what you're here for." He laughed, and then scanned the three genin.

"I already know you all will grow to be fine ninjas." Guy Sensei said. "But it takes work." He smiled again. That was something he did constantly, Tenten noted. "And the work starts tomorrow."

"Tomorrow?" Lee sounded disappointed. Tenten was also slightly disappointed at the wait, but she tried not to show it.

"Tomorrow morning." Guy sensei said, nodding his head. "Eat a full breakfast! But not too much, or you might throw up." He grinned. "Got it!?"

"Yes Sensei!" Tenten, Lee, and Neji said in unison.

"All right then! See you all tomorrow!" Then Guy sensei gave them one last look. "May the power of youth be with you!"

Tenten just looked at him quizzically. Wasn't that what Lee always said?

* * *

She hadn't gone home right away after their meeting with Guy sensei. Neji had gone straight home, not even saying bye, but she instead had stuck around with Lee to go get weapons for him. She had promised to help him with his aim before, so he needed shuriken for practice.

"What happened to your old shuriken?" Tenten asked, confused.

Lee cringed. "I kinda just used them up."

Tenten looked at him quizzically. "Used them up? What's that supposed to mean?"

"I used them up." He said again. "They're done for." And then he pulled one out from his pocket. Tenten's eyes widened just looking at the poor chunk of metal.

"Lee!" Tenten said, horrified. "What the heck happened!?"

Lee shrugged. "I was practicing aiming." He grinned foolishly. "And then this happened."

Tenten stared at him, and she couldn't help the deadpan expression that molded onto her face. "Right." She said sarcastically. Then she sighed. "You need to take better care of your weapons."

Lee nodded enthusiastically. "Ok, ok! I will, promise, promise. Let's just do stuff!"

Tenten grinned. "Fine, fine."

They ended up going to Tenten's own family shop for the shuriken. Tenten ordered her dad to put out the best of the shuriken for Lee. Toshi had smiled and had brought out the most appropriate shuriken for Lee. "The best of the best." Tosh had said, winking. "On the house."

"Wha-I can't do that!" Lee had exclaimed, astonished. He fumbled around in his pockets for money, pulling out a few coins. "Ah, is this enough?"

Toshi had just smiled. "Don't worry about it Lee. Consider this as a gift! You're my daughter's teammate and you've been her friend for such a long time." He glanced to Tenten. "Thank you for being her friend."

"Oh no! Tenten's the one who's done so much for me!" Lee said. "Really!"

Tenten just rolled her eyes, smiling. "Just take the shuriken Lee."

Lee glanced between Toshi and Tenten, and then he smiled up at Toshi bashfully. "Thank you, sir." His eyes then lit up. "I'll repay your kindness one day!"

Toshi just smiled. "Sure kiddo."

* * *

Naruto was still in the sword. And he was waiting. He had been waiting for who knows how many hours for Tenten to come home, and finally use the sword. He didn't have a problem with seeing outside the case anymore (ever since he started to put effort into his vision), but he did have a problem with being bored.

And the deal. Whenever Tenten came home, if she ever did, he was going to finally talk to Tenten about it. Well, not about the deal per se, but about how he was inside of it. Well not that either.

Ugh, just thinking about it made Naruto's head hurt.

"**You mean you're gonna talk to her, right?**" Kurama had said. "**Like a normal person. About who we are, and what she's dealing with.**"

"And she helps us!" Naruto said cheerfully.

Kurama sighed. "**No, no—that comes afterward. Naruto, it's her choice if she wants to involve herself with us.**"

Naruto looked up at Kurama. "You could have at least tried to be nice to _me_ like this when I was a kid right?" He said sarcastically.

Kurama growled at him. "**I was plenty nice, brat.**" He snapped. "**For someone who was sucking on my chakra.**"

Naruto laughed. "Which you literally forced into me."

The fox snorted, and Naruto felt his consciousness retreat. The big furball was taking a nap. In the middle of a conversation!

"Yeah, yeah, go ahead." Naruto muttered. "I'll just wait here. Like usual."

It was a little while later he heard the door to the bedroom click open. His eyes lit up in recognition at Tenten, but frowned as someone new entered the room.

Shiny gelled hair, familiar, but not in the same haircut he was used to seeing it in, walked into his view.

His eyes widened at seeing Rock Lee.

"See! This is it Lee." Tenten exclaimed. "The sword that I got from Saturo's crops!" She took the sword into her hands, and showed it to Lee. "Too bad you didn't come on the mission with us. You would have had the chance to get something good from the shop as well." Tenten remarked.

Naruto's expression morphed into one of disbelief when Tenten unsheathed the sword, giving him a good look at Lee.

"Woah…" Lee said. "That's actually pretty cool for something you picked up from an antique shop, Tenten!"

Naruto just stared. It really was Lee. "Kurama. Can you believe it? It's Bushy Brows!" Kurama didn't respond, and Naruto sighed. Right. The fox was sleeping ( the fox could hear him in his sleep too though, so Kurama was probably just ignoring him).

Lee looked young. His shiny black hair wasn't in a bowl cut like he was used to seeing it, but was swiped to the side with gel. He wore a long tan dress-shirt that wrapped around his waist, with a long red cloth to keep it in place. Instead of the tight green onesie pants he was used to seeing, Lee wore baggy pants. Lee's signature genin headband wasn't around his waist anymore, but instead on his forehead, which surprised Naruto more than it should have.

This Lee must have been young genin Lee, from way before the chunin exams. Maybe from just around when they got assigned to Genin groups.

Naruto tilted his head in curiosity. Right… Sasuke had mentioned something about how the genin year before them had been tested rather strangely—because they had someone that was an exception in their class. Obviously, that exception was Rock Lee. They had made the genin test more on ability to be like a ninja, no matter what they relied on (ninjutsu, genjutsu, or taijutsu). Otherwise there was absolutely no way Lee could have passed to Genin level if he had taken the normal test on how to make illusions. Lee just wouldn't have been able to do it.

So, ironically, Lee had passed the harder test, the same test that resulted in their year having the lowest passing percent in _50 years._

Naruto chuckled. And Tenten had passed as well.

He was snapped out of his thoughts when Tenten sheathed the sword again. "Let me show you outside." He heard her say to Lee. "We can practice too."

Naruto watched as they went deeper into the forest behind Tenten's house. Multiple targets were scattered throughout the trees, and he watched Lee's expression change as Lee spotted them all.

"Woah, Tenten, are those yours?" Lee asked.

Tenten smirked. "Obviously. How else do you think I got so good at my aim?"

Lee tried hard to keep himself from squealing.

"Teach me!"

"Teach you?" Tenten echoed. "it just takes practice. Like this." She slipped out a shuriken from nowhere—was that a seal? —and threw it at a target in front of her. It cut through leaves, and onto the sloppily painted red bullseye with an ever-growing dent in its place. The shuriken drove through the wood, sticking in place.

Lee whooped. "Whoo! Tenten!" Naruto watched as Tenten laughed, somewhat embarrassed.

"You're going to be a future weapon master for sure!" Lee said grinning.

Tenten grinned back mischievously. "Taijutsu master!"

Both genin gave each other a high-five, laughing. Naruto just stared at the both of them.

How could they both be so carefree and happy?

With how the future was, and how it was all going to be, how could they still laugh? They were going to be ninja… they were acting like they _weren't_ going to kill people one day. Like their teammate wouldn't die one day.

"**You were the same before we were sealed.**" Kurama said, sensing his thoughts.

Naruto didn't say anything. The whole concept of being so carefree was so foreign to Naruto. It had been so long since he used to be like Tenten and Lee were.

Sure, he was carefree now, but not in the sense like how he used to be when he was younger. Now he was carefree because he was reckless. It didn't matter anymore—they were just going to continue be stuck in the sword. But before, he was carefree because he didn't know. He didn't know the future, and he had people who would stick with him through and through—no matter the future. He didn't need to know the future, because the future didn't _matter_. Not then.

Tenten and Lee reminded him of that.

A strange feeling spread through his chest. Naruto frowned. Tenten and Lee deserved to preserve that carefreeness. There was a chance they wouldn't be like this anymore, when they grew older. Naruto didn't want that for them.

He frowned immediately.

Then he smiled slightly, but in disbelief. "Ha..."

_What am I? What am I feeling?_

"**I think you're finally feeling like yourself Naruto**." Kurama responded.

Naruto said nothing for a bit, staring at both Tenten and Lee. "Sure." He said slowly.

Then he mulled the thought in his mind for a bit. "We need to help her." He said. "She doesn't deserve to face the future that's her."

Tenten would turn to her weapon shop. She would be a ninja, but there would always be some part of her missing.

And everyone else. Lee's dynamic with his sensei would forever be changed. Neji wouldn't be a part of their future anymore. Hinata would lose her brother, and her position as heiress. Team Asuma would lose their sensei. Kurenai sensei would be a single mother. Sasuke would kill his only family. Naruto himself would be condemned to a life in a sword.

So many people's fates were tied all together, in one fragile timeline.

"**It's true, Naruto**." Kurama said. "**And this sword… it wills itself to be found. If the sword was found by Tenten, then there must have been a reason**." He admitted.

Naruto felt a grin form over his features. "So, you admit it. This is it."

Kurama scowled. But Naruto could feel the contagious grin bubbling up in the foxes' throat.

"Let's do this one more time."

* * *

Lee had gone home pretty early, because he insisted on a good night's sleep for training the day after. Tenten agreed, but she herself had been up all night. She couldn't help it: she was just so excited for the first day of her being an official genin and actually training!

Toshi had congratulated her after Lee had left. "So, your first day of training is finally here!"

Tenten squealed. "Dad! Ah!" Then she had paraded around the house, grinning. "I'm finally a genin! Finally, a genin! A genin, a genin!" She cheered. Toshi laughed looking at her.

Her father patted her head. "If you're this happy, how're you going to go to sleep?"

Tenten shrugged him off. "It's fine, it's fine."

She ended up being up all night, but it didn't matter. She woke up just as energized as ever, and had marched downstairs, with everything in hand. She was wearing a coral qipao-style shirt with red-sleeve trimmings, and dark turquoise pants with sandals. Her genin headband was proudly wrapped around her forehead.

Toshi smiled as she walked down the stairs.

"Ready?"

"Yep!"

She had reached the training grounds in time, where Lee, Neji, and Might Guy were already there waiting for her.

"Being a ninja isn't all about being flashy." Might Guy said. "Although, it does help sometimes." He said, flashing them a smile. "But ninjutsu isn't all that there is. You need to build up your taijutsu prowess." Might guy glanced at all three of them as they were sitting underneath the tree. Tenten herself had sat under the shade first, since it was pretty hot outside, and Neji and Lee had followed.

"I'm pretty sure all of you are already familiar with that notion though…" he muttered, stroking his chin.

Tenten nodded. Lee couldn't use anything else but taijutsu, and Neji was a young prodigy of the gentle fist. Tenten herself was pretty ok at taijutsu.

Then Guy sensei grinned. "No worries! There's no limit to how much one can learn!" He said. "Why don't we do some light spars?"

Tenten nodded, and Lee grinned.

"YOSH!"

Tenten had also learnt that day that Lee got all of those "power of youth" and "Yosh" outbursts from none other that Guy sensei. That also meant that she had to listen to Guy sensei and Lee's outbursts of Youth every now and then throughout the whole day of training. Whenever that happened, she and Neji would just look at the both of them weirdly.

They had just finished sparring when Tenten had remarked how hot it was outside. Guy sensei had proceeded to pull out three green onesies, the same as what he himself was wearing.

"Uh…" Tenten said. "What are those?"

Guy sensei puffed his chest proudly. "These are the most ultimate pieces of clothing ever. They're thin and flexible and easy to breathe in. The best on a hot day!" He pressed them close to Tenten. "Try one. They're for my dear students after all!"

Lee had yelled in happiness and grabbed a onesie. "Thank you, sensei! I for sure will wear this tomorrow!" Tears streamed down his eyes. "I will never forget this gift." He said dramatically. "It will always be in my heart!"

"Neji? Tenten? What about you?" Guy questioned when neither of them said anything.

Tenten's eyebrow twitched, and Neji sweat dropped.

"I'm fine Sensei. I already have a lot of clothes so…" Tenten said plainly.

Neji nodded along. "I can't accept it."

Guy sensei scoffed. "Of course, you can accept it! These are for you all! My dear students!"

"Ah, ha-ha… sure." She said lamely. She took one of the onesies begrudgingly. Surely, they weren't as bad as they seemed?

She looked towards Neji and had to suppress her laughter as he also took one. The look of distaste on his face was totally worth it; Neji glared at her as she covered her mouth.

Gai grinned. "Now, you all up for some more training?"

Lee grinned. "Of course, Sensei!"

* * *

Tenten came home afternoon-ish, after having lunch with her team. Guy sensei talked about how since they were a team now, they were going to be beside each other for everything. That included, training, lunch, missions, a lot of things. And that meant teamwork was going to be crucial.

Tenten didn't know how to feel about teamwork with her teammates. Lee and her were going to be good teammates. But her and Neji… well it's not like their team work was bad. They had taken down that great tiger together. That must have meant something right?

But there were other issues with their team. Neji had quite a bit of pride, and she didn't know if he would work over it. When they had fought that great tiger, Tenten had thought that Neji would ignore her at the last second… but he didn't. But there had been a chance that he would have ignored her.

If they were going to be a team, there needed to be no chance like that, ever. They were going to have to trust each other completely, even in the midst of battle.

That meant that Neji needed to get off his high horse, and that Tenten and Lee needed to work more to reach a level where he would be willing to listen to them.

* * *

The next day they had training again. This time, Guy sensei had them do tree walking practice. The concept was similar to magnetics: their feet would stick to the tree, so they could walk up and down like how they would normally walk on the ground.

She had to focus on fixing chakra to the bottom of her feet, and use the chakra to climb the tree without her hands. But the tree walking just _wasn't_ working for her.

Tenten had whined when she kept failing. "Guy sensei! It's not working!" She said. "I don't have good chakra control!"

Might Guy grinned. "Exactly! This exercise isn't for people with good chakra control! It's for people to get better at chakra control!"

Tenten glared at his direction. "Ugh."

It was annoying though. Whenever she put a bunch of chakra at the bottom of her soles, instead of sticking to the tree, she was just pushed away from the tree, which would break from the overuse of chakra. But, when she tried to stream less chakra to the soles of her feet, she just lost the magnetic effect completely, and fell of the tree.

Tenten groaned and fell onto the grass. "Ugh!"

Might guy appeared in her vision from above. He grinned at her. "You're either putting too much chakra or too little Tenten! Think about control. You've got to put just the right amount."

Tenten frowned, and glanced towards Neji, who was currently walking up the tree just fine.

Lee on the other hand, had frowned sadly when he couldn't do it. "Sensei if I fail this time too, I'll do 100 more pushups!"

He was still doing pushups.

Tenten put her head down to the ground again. "Fine. I'll do it again."

By the end of the day, she was able to stick on the tree for a few seconds before falling off. The progress wasn't enormous, but it was better than nothing.

They rested for a bit underneath the tree again, but Lee insisted on doing more pushups when he still wasn't able to do the tree walking sufficiently enough by the end of the day.

Tears streamed down Guy Sensei's eyes. "How moving! Lee! Your determination is, is so YOUTHFUL!" Lee responded with tears in his eyes as well, and Tenten just stared in disbelief. "I'm so moved. I'll do the pushups with you Lee!"

That left Neji and Tenten left to sit under the tree in silence.

"So…" Tenten said. "That was pretty weird right."

Neji just nodded his head.

"Uh, nice tree walking. You're really good at it."

"It's something I already learnt." Neji replied. Tenten's eyes widened.

"What?! Really?" She exclaimed. "How come you already learnt?"

Neji shrugged. "I'm part of the Hyuga household. My uncle, the head…" He shook his head. "I just thought I could go further if I learnt it."

Tenten nodded. So, it was out of personal interest.

She thought back to how she said he was a Hyuga and about his uncle. Since he was not just Hyuga, but the _Hyuga_ prodigy, that meant Neji must have probably been someone really important in the family. Especially if the head was his uncle, and since his uncle seemed to have looked after him. Was he the heir?

"Wow. Well since you're so ahead, are you the heir?" Tenten said, looking towards Neji.

Neji's eyes widened slightly, as he looked towards Tenten bizarrely. She blinked at him, unmoving, and Neji then frowned, his eyes narrowing at her.

"_What_?"

"Your uncle's the head right? So, are you the next heir then?"

Neji really glared at her this time. "I'm from the branch family."

Tenten blinked again. "Oh. So, you _are_ the heir?"

Neji glared at her again, but then he just sighed seeing how Tenten was still just as confused.

"I'm from the _branch_ family. Not the main family like uncle. The branch family's duty is to serve the main family. The main family is the ones that produces the heirs."

Tenten blinked, processing the information. Then she frowned. "What? So, all you do is serve the main family? You can't do your own thing?"

Neji shook his head. "No. No matter what I do, how skilled I become, I'll always be in service to the Hyuga's main house."

Tenten scoffed. "Just because you're in the _branch_ family? That's so stupid! You should be able to do whatever you want!"

Neji stood and gave Tenten the most frustrated look she had seen him wear. Annoyance was all over his features. Tenten didn't understand why.

She was on _his_ side! She had just supported him!

Neji stared at her. "Fate is predetermined from birth, Tenten." He said coldly.

She gaped at him. "What?"

"Just how I can never escape serving the main house, Lee can never be a true ninja. He will never amount to anything."

Tenten blinked.

Where did _Lee_ come from?

Her eyebrows creased in anger. "Wha-What?! You can't just say that about Lee! Lee can be whatever he wants!" Tenten yelled, frowning.

Neji just gave her a furious look, scowling. He turned his back to her, and stalked off. "I'm leaving. Tell Guy Sensei."

Tenten just watched his figure as he left. What was _his_ problem?

* * *

So Naruto and Kurama have finally decided to actually talk to Tenten! That will happen next chapter for sure so, yay! Also forgive my horrible spelling ( I didn't spellcheck).

The next chapter will be out soon! Leave reviews! I read every single one of them, and they help me know which direction the story is going in! Also, gryphems informed me that I made an error in the chapter before this one, and that Team Guy's number is actually 9. So, thank you to them!


	6. Chapter 5

Back with a pretty early chapter, just like I said I would! It's the finally awaited Tenten and Naruto meeting! I didn't spellcheck, and posted it in quite a hurry, so there may be errors.

* * *

It was the next day when Lee had showed up to practice wearing the same green onesie that Guy Sensei always wore. Tenten didn't know how to feel about it when she saw him wearing it. She had expected it, since Lee had promised that he would "forever" treasure it.

But what she had not expected was the _hair. _Lee had also cut his hair the same way as Guy sensei had. And that meant a bowl cut.

"Lee?!" Tenten had exclaimed first thing when he had turned around. Shiny hair was cut in a perfect bowl around lee's head.

Lee winked at her. "You like it?"

Tenten just smiled hesitantly, her mouth twitching. "Uh… sure."

Lee grinned. "I had it done this weekend! Isn't it great?! Me and Guy sensei will now be youthful together!" His eyebrows turned downwards as he looked at her. "Although it's rather sad that you and Neji do not wish to join the tradition of this fabulous clothing."

That comment had earned Lee a slight bonk on the back of his head from Tenten, who proceeded to yell that she did not want to play look alike with her team every single day. "You want me to look like you guys every day?!"

What had really been funny though, was _Neji's_ reaction to Lee.

The Hyuga boy had just casually walked in, with his hands tucked in his pockets, and he looked towards the both of them. His white eyes had caught on to Lee, and he stopped, standing still for a few moments. And then he turned back as quickly as possible.

"G-Guy Sensei?" He said quietly.

"Nope! It's me, Lee! Though I do look quite like sensei, don't I?"

Neji blanched.

Tenten burst out laughing, and she tried to cover her laughter up with her hand, but to no avail. Neji let out a sigh (Tenten had expected him to glare at her). Lee had just looked at her confused. "I do not understand why you're laughing."

Guy sensei had walked in on the scene a second later, with the same confused expression, when he saw Tenten laughing, and Neji with an exasperated look on his face.

* * *

She walked with Lee back home after training, and ended up deciding to have a late afternoon snack at the ramen place Ichiraku's. Tenten liked their food a lot—it tasted great, and it wasn't super expensive either.

"What do you recommend Tenten?" Lee asked.

Tenten shrugged. "Everything is good here." She eyed the menu again. "But their Shoyu is really good."

Lee grinned. "We'll both take Shoyu then!" He cheered to the owner.

The man responded from the back. "Coming right up!"

Tenten grinned and turned towards Lee. "It'll be great. You'll love it."

"Well, next time, we should bring Neji along too!" Lee said, tilting his head. "We're a team, right? Guy Sensei said our first mission was coming up, and we still haven't gotten to completely know each other."

She sighed, and placed her hand against her cheek. "Yeah that's true." Then the incident she had before with Neji popped into her mind.

'_I'm leaving. Tell Guy Sensei.'_

Tenten brought her hands to both sides of her head and groaned. "Ugh Lee. I think I really messed up."

"Huh? How so?"

"Well, I might have said something to Neji. And he got pretty insulted."

Lee blinked, and then he started laughing. "Don't you always insult him somehow Tenten?"

"Hey! Not always!" She growled. Then she sighed. "But yeah, I'm pretty sure he got super annoyed though." Tenten glanced towards Lee. "Now it's just gonna be super awkward between the whole team."

"Well, you can always apologize."

"What?! No way am I apologizing to him!" _Just because I may have annoyed him doesn't give him the right to insult others! If anything, his insult canceled out the apology! _She screamed internally. "He was rude back to me!"

Lee grinned. "Then all you can do now is move forward! Gradually the awkwardness will disappear!"

She considered the advice for a moment. Then she nodded. "Yeah. I think that's really all I _can_ do now." Then her eyebrow twitching. "It's not my fault. I was trying to be nice, but he brought up all this clan stuff…" She muttered. _Well technically, I did ask him about it. I probably shouldn't interfere with all of that clan business…_ "Well, whatever."

Two plates of Soyou slid in front of her and Lee, and Lee grinned at the man who had served it to them. The man had permanently squinty eyes, and grinned at Lee back. "Thank you for the food! YOSH!"

Tenten smiled as well, and looked towards her food. If there was one thing that could make her happier, food was probably it.

* * *

She had gotten home finally at around 5, after saying bye to Lee and departing ways at Ichiraku's.

Tenten opened the door to the weapon shop, humming a tune she heard playing at the market on the way home. An old woman sitting outside on a chair that she recognized waved at her.

"Tenten!" The woman said as she opened the door. She pointed towards her forehead. "Congratulations on becoming a genin!"

Tenten grinned. "Thank you!" She said, politely saying bye afterwards. Tenten ended up making her way through the shop, stopping to say hi and chat with a few regulars who came by to Toshi's Weapon Shop quite frequently. They also congratulated her on becoming a genin after seeing her headband, and Tenten just smiled and thanked on them.

She spent another hour in the shop, showing customers around to different weapons they might be interested in. Tenten was always known for having an eye for weapons, and the regulars knew it. It made Tenten good for any recommendations in the shop, even if she was still a genin. She had practically been raised around weapons, so she liked to think she knew about most of them very well.

After a while, she made her way upstairs. She had some free time today, and Tenten was going to spend it wisely.

She opened the door to her room, and cracked her knuckles lazily. _Hmm… Maybe I should practice some seals… oooh, I could read that new book about weapons dad got… _Tenten thought. _Or read that book on fortune-telling. _

Her eyes moved around her room, while all the while thinking about what she was going to do. Her eyes settled on the black case of the sword which lied against her bed. Tenten remembered when she showed the sword to her father. Her father's eyes had widened when he had unsheathed the sword for the first time.

"_Wow." He had examined the blade of the sword, and the engravings across it, Kanji that said "Seal." Tenten had been confused when they first appeared, since she had never seen them before, but she had passed it off as nothing. Knowing her, she was probably too eager to get it that she never even noticed the engravings in the first place._

"_Tenten, are you sure that old man-"_

"_Saturo-san." She had interjected._

"_-yes, him, didn't actually know the value of this when he gave it to you?"_

_Tenten had shrugged sheepishly. "He said that it was special to him, but he was willing to give it to me anyway."_

"_Well, this sword is in excellent condition." Toshi had said, stroking his chin. "Interesting that this sword has been apparently sitting in his shop for years. How did no one else see this?"_

_Tenten had shrugged again. "Well, his shop isn't exactly in the most known places…"_

_Toshi had just nodded. "Just try it out. Tell me how it feels."_

_Tenten had practiced with the sword for the rest of the afternoon that day._

She smiled thinking of it. Maybe she should start taking the sword with her more often to practice. Tenten didn't feel like she was especially great at using it yet, but she knew that it could be useful. And if she never used it, it would just be a waste. With a weapon like a sword, she could already imagine her arsenal of weapons expanding. Tenten grinned just thinking about it.

She flipped open the case, and picked up the sword, feeling it in her hands again. Tenten couldn't help but notice its unusual design once again. She unsheathed the sword in one motion, and the blade gleamed at her, showing her own reflection.

"Use it." A voice said.

Tenten nodded. Yes, that was it. She would use it. For _real_. She would start sealing her sword in her scrolls from today onwards. Tenten could then finally use it in practice.

Then she froze. Huh? Her eyes widened as she stared at the sword, and then she looked around frantically. _"Use it."_ Who was that?

"Uh…?" She said staring at disbelief at the sword. Then she sighed. "It must be imagination…" she said, muttering to no one, and closing her eyes.

"Uh, no. It's not your imagination." She froze as she felt a sudden flare of chakra from the sword, and her eyes opened at once.

Tenten flung the sword at once across the room, and away from her. "AAAAHH!" Tenten screamed, landing on her butt, and scrambling away from the sword, her eyes widening exponentially.

"**Great job, brat**." Another, deeper, voice said. "**You scared her**."

Tenten didn't stop screaming. "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!"

"Hey, stop acting like that's not how _I _reacted when you tried speaking to me for the first time!"

"**Ugh**." Tenten could practically hear the deeper voice roll their eyes.

She expected to see people appearing in front of her anytime. To her surprise, nothing happened, and no one appeared in front of her.

Only the sword was there, laying in the middle of the floor.

"Wha-What?" She tripped over her words, slowly crawling over to the weapon. She picked it up with her hands.

She heard a cough. "Yes. Hello." The voice came from the sword, the weapon that was still in her hands.

Tenten just gaped at the sword. "What?"

The voice sighed. "I'm in the sword." The he paused. "Shit." He groaned. "I gave it away again." He paused. "I meant; I _am_ the sword."

Tenten raised an eyebrow quizzically. She was talking to a sword. A _sword._ Or wait. _Some_thing in the sword. "You're _in_ the sword."

"… Yes." Tenten heard the second voice in the background, laughing deeply.

"Oh my god." Her eyes widened. "I'm going crazy, right?" Her hands clutched at her head. "That's it." She laughed nervously. Then deliriously.

Tenten heard a chuckle. "You're not crazy. Believe me, if anyone was crazy right now, it would probably have to be me."

She swallowed. "Is that a good thing?"

The voice paused. "For you? Yes."

Tenten sighed, and then she rubbed her temples. Her mouth twitched, as her own actions reminded her of an old grandma. She inhaled a breath. _Ok, just think. I'm a ninja. If anything, this shouldn't be the weirdest thing I'll face in my life. I'm a ninja. A ninja!_ Just like that, Tenten sobered herself up from her previous state of being distraught.

_Just think. Handle the situation calmly. A level head. _Like Neji.

She breathed in again. "Ok. So, you're in the sword."

"Yes."

She blinked. Wait. "Then _why_ are you in my sword?!" She yelled.

"Hey, hey, I've been in this sword for a _long_ time." He paused. "It's kind of like a package deal. I'm like, the _voice_ of the sword."

Tenten stared at the sword with a deadpan expression on her face.

"If you're the voice of the sword, then who's the other one?" She asked.

"Oh, you mean the bastard furball." Tenten's eyebrows raised at the name.

"**Shut up. I can speak for myself.**"The deeper voice she had previously mentioned said.

"Wait a second." Tenten said pausing. "Who even _are_ you guys?"

"Oh, I know this! I'm Naruto!" The voice cheered at once.

The deeper voice groaned at the introduction. "**Idiot. Have you even considered she already knows you in real time?**"

Tenten frowned. "Naruto? I don't know any Naruto." She paused. "Should I?"

"Well, it makes sense. Have you taken the chunin exam yet?"

She blinked. The chunin exam? That was so far away. "Uh, no."

"Great! So, we haven't met yet."

Tenten nodded in confirmation, before stopping. Her eyes looked at the sword suspiciously. "Wait, what do you mean by _real time?_ If you're in the sword, how can you also be-" She gestured to around her. "-outside? Aren't you a voice?"

"Well, let's just say I'm not just a voice. I'm a human." He paused. "A shinobi, just like you."

"**We were sealed in the sword for a long time**."

"A _really_ long time." Naruto spoke.

Tenten paused, and her fingertips ran over the kanji that spelled out 'seal.' Then she frowned. "Living things can't be sealed." She said matter-of-factly. "It's not possible. Otherwise… they die."

Naruto sighed and spoke up again. "That's not true. They say that in the books, but it's not true."

Tenten stared at the sword in disbelief. But if two people were speaking from the sword, she guessed it could be true. Nothing else could explain why there were two very present chakra signatures from inside the sword. And why they were speaking to her.

"…Ok." She said slowly. Then she paused again. "This isn't a prank, right?"

The man sighed again. "Have you been listening to _anything_ I've been saying?"

She frowned. "Well, hey! You expect me to _believe_ anything you're saying?" Tenten said, putting her hands on her hips. "I'm talking to a sword! A sword! And you're telling me there are two, living, people sealed inside! How am I supposed to believe that?!"

"**She's got a point**."

"Thank you!" She huffed. Then she looked at the sword again. "But that still doesn't explain the real time? How can there be _two_ of you?"

"That's more complicated, I-"

Naruto was cut off by a few knocks on the door. Tenten looked to see Toshi open the door, alarmed. "Tenten?! Are you ok?"

Tenten looked up at her father, gaping. "What?"

"A customer told me he had heard someone screaming upstairs." Toshi's eyes looked around her room, and back at her. "Did anything happen?" Toshi was pretty sure he had heard something else, or another voice, from her room as well.

"Well, I-" She hesitated and looked toward the sword.

"**Kid. There's no point saying anything.**" Tenten's eyes widened at the words, and looked towards her father, expecting him to be alarmed or to shout like she had at the voice. Her father just looked at her with the same concern.

"W-What?"

"Tenten?" Her dad asked. "You screamed."

"**He can't hear us now. I'm speaking through your mind right now.**"

"R-right." She looked up at her father with a sheepish look on her face. "Sorry Dad. I just fell off the bed on my back while I was practicing with the sword." Tenten said, waving her hands around aimlessly.

Her dad looked at her skeptically, and then his face relaxed. "Are you sure you're okay?"

Tenten nodded. Her father kept looking downstairs, and Tenten knew that he had to get back to the shop quickly. _Ugh. I feel bad for bothering him for his work, _and, _I'm lying._

Toshi smiled in relief and patted her head. "Okay then Tenten. I have to go back to the shop, but don't try any reckless stunts like that, ok?"

She smiled tentatively and nodded, and her father left, and closed the door. Tenten waited until she heard his footsteps disappear downstairs, and then she sighed.

She turned to the sword, her eyebrows furrowing. "I just lied to my dad!"

Naruto sighed. "Sorry about that kiddo." Then he paused. "Woah. I totally just sounded like sensei there."

"What?"

"Never mind. But it's true. We were sealed into the sword, and we've been stuck in the sword for _hundreds_ of years."

Tenten's eyes widened. "_Hundreds_ of years? Are you guys like super old then? Before Ninja even existed?" She tried to keep the awe from her voice, but her voice betrayed her.

"**No. Well, **_**I'm**_** pretty old. But we were sealed in the future. And then we were sent back in time.**"

The room fell into silence. Then her brow twitched. "Sent back in _time_?! That's not even possible."

"Trust me. It is." Naruto said wearily. Tenten's eyes widened at the tone. And then she sighed.

"Say if this is all true. Why-why are you telling me this?" She paused. "I might be a shinobi, just like you, but I'm still just a _genin_." If what they were saying was true, that they were sealed in a sword, and sent back in time, why would they be telling her? Maybe in the future she would be a great shinobi, but right now she was just a genin that had horrible chakra control.

"Well, you're the owner of the sword. And it's not you who picked up the sword. The sword is the one who picked up _you_." She frowned at the strange choice of words and the hesitating voice.

"I feel like you're leaving out something really important here." Tenten said dryly. She jolted as the deeper voice laughed, a bone-chilling sound.

"**She's smart. I haven't talked to anyone other than you or those stupid idiots called siblings in so long that I forgot how it feels to be talking to someone who has common sense.**"

"Ha-ha, so funny." The other voice drawled.

Naruto spoke up again, after a moment of silence. "Tenten, you want to be a great kunoichi, right?" Tenten nodded her head, surprised by the question. "The best?" She nodded again. "I had that dream too." He said, chuckling. "And that dream, it should never go away, OK?" She nodded again this time, more slowly. Why was he telling her this?

"Well one day, that dream for everyone might go away." Her eyes widened.

"What? What're you trying to say?"

"The future doesn't always end up as a 'happy ever after.' But this time, we have to make sure it does."

"And you know this because you're from the future." She said slowly.

"Yep. And we need your help."

Tenten blinked again. "M-Me?" She spluttered. "What? Why me?"

"**The sword is yours. And we can't help you without a sword.**"

"And you're a weapon master."

Her mouth opened in shock. "Bu-But, can't you just get out of the sword? Then you can do whatever you want."

"**We're sealed in the sword.**"

"So? I can just unseal it for you right? And then boom, you can go save the future." She paused. "Assuming this is all true." She couldn't believe she was starting to actually believe them. It didn't seem like a prank, and the way they spoke, their words rang true to her ears. Tenten was actually _believing_ all this. Was she a fool for doing so?

"It's not that simple. The last person who tampered with the seal- it didn't end well with them." He sighed. "And we can't unseal us. The only person in the world who probably has enough chakra to even attempt to get us out of the seal is probably me. But I'm inside the seal, so it won't work."

Tenten felt cold. What had happened to the last person?

"**It's your choice. We're here to help you.**" The deeper voice said.

Her hands curled in her lap as she stared at the sword.

"Hey." She said. "Do you know me in the future? You said we meet in the future, right?"

"… Yeah. We do."

"And I'm a shinobi in the future, right?"

"Yeah."

She thought back to when he said she should never give up on her dream. "Do I give up on my dream?"

"… That's debatable."

Debatable? What was _that_ supposed to mean? "Tell me."

"… Something happens in the future. And after that- "

"Right." She said, cutting him off. Tenten's eyes fell, and her heart squeezed. So, she eventually gave up her dream.

The thought made tears well up in her eyes, and she tried everything in her power not to cry.

First, she had wanted to be like the great Lady Tsunade. But she had had horrible chakra control, oo that had slipped out of her hands. Then she found a better dream: She wanted to be the best weapon master in the world. She wanted to follow in her mother's footsteps, what she had always seemed to have an innate talent for. She was known as Ten out of Ten for aim.

But she gave up that dream in the future too.

She looked towards her clenched hands, and she felt the hot tears in her eyes. Why was she crying over something like this?

The voices said nothing from the sword.

_Tenten._ She thought to herself. _That's in the future. _She looked toward the sword, forcing herself to not cry. _They messed up too. And they were sent back in time. And they've lived in that sword for hundreds of years. And if they're still that determined to change the future… than I can too!_

Her gaze grew determined.

"Tenten?" The voice asked.

"I don't wanna give up on my dream!" She shouted, brushing the tears out of her eyes. "And if you want to change the future, and save everyone's dreams, then I want to help too!"

She could practically hear the smile in the voice of Naruto. "Of course."

"So, what do I have to do then?" Tenten said, sniffling.

"**Don't worry about that yet. Just put your hands on the sword**."

Tenten did as he said. "Why?"

"You're the owner of the sword in name, but not in chakra and contract." Naruto explained. "We'll have to change that." Tenten nodded in affirmative. "Ready?"

"Yeah."

The Kanji that read "seal" on the sword flashed orange, and the chakra of the sword flared once again, but instead of just being blue, a bright orange was mixed alongside it. Tenten marveled at the colors, and how the feeling of the chakra was warm as it rushed over her hands, and seemingly seeped into her. She screwed her eyes shut as the chakra completely engulfed her, and it felt as if years of existence passed over her in a few seconds.

When the feeling subsided, Tenten opened her eyes tentatively, only to find herself standing in the middle of murky water that lapped on to her feet gently. Her eyes widened as she looked towards the person standing in front of her. He had bright blond hair, and sky-blue eyes that looked to her happily. A grin was plastered on his face, making the three scars parallel on both of his cheeks stand out even more. His face looked familiar, and a memory tingled in the back of her head.

What surprised her even more was the enormously large fox that was sitting beside him, his head laying on the ground. The fox's eyes opened, and red eyes with black slits looked towards her. Her eyes flitted towards the back, where eight, no, _nine_, tails waved back and forth.

"Still believe it's a prank?"

Tenten just gaped.

* * *

She continued staring at the two people—well one person, and one fox—in front of her.

"Oh my god." Tenten pointed. She tried to say something, but nothing seemed to exit her mouth.

"Right. We didn't introduce this guy's name, did we?" Naruto, the blond man's name she presumed, waved towards the fox. "This is Kurama!"

"The nine-tailed fox." She whispered.

"Yeah!" Then Naruto looked back at her, and his face fell. "Oh, wait. I know what you're thinking, and you've got the wrong idea. This guy—" He waved towards the fox again. "is good. He might not seem that way, but he is. I should know, since he's been sealed inside me for my whole life."

The fox sighed, exasperated. "**This is why I didn't want to show her me yet.**"

"Wait, _what_? Sealed inside _you_ your whole _life_?" Tenten said, gawking.

"Yes. I'm a jinchuriki." He explained. "That means I have a tailed beast sealed inside me."

"And you were sealed in the sword."

"Yep."

"So, the fox was sealed in you, and you were sealed in the sword."

"Yep."

Tenten felt a little bit lightheaded. "I think I may need to sit down." She muttered. "This is too much for me to all take in at once."

"**It's fine. That's usually the reaction most people get.**" The fox shrugged.

Tenten looked towards the fox (Kurama, wasn't it?), and she noticed how lax and chill he was. She had read a book on the nine-tailed fox once, and they had learned about it once in school with Eito-Sensei. They had learnt how the fox had gone on a rampage in Konoha one night, and the Fourth Hokage had sacrificed himself to seal the fox away. But they had never said anything about the fox being sealed into a _person_.

The book had also said how the fox was the incarnation of evil, in the form of nine tails, and the strongest of all the tailed beasts.

Right now, it didn't look like that. Honestly, the fox looked like it was pretty done with life as a whole.

"Ok then." She said, taking a breath. "I think I get it now. The whole story I mean." Tenten eyed Naruto warily once more. "But what exactly did you do to me?"

"If we're going to help each other, we need to be able to transfer chakra from in and out of the sword. It's like a contract. We can't act outside if we don't have anyone outside to do it on our behalf."

"And that's me." She said, everything clicking into place.

"**Yes. Ever since we've been stuck inside the sword, we've been slowly seeping my chakra outside of the seal, so we could communicate more with the outside.**"

So, she was a vessel. They had tried to use their chakra from inside the sword, but it wouldn't work. And if they seeped their chakra out of the sword, it would just leave them. There needed to be a place to keep the chakra they pushed into the outside.

"Wait." She deadpanned. "So, I'm a _battery_."

The blond-haired man blinked at her, but the fox opened his mouth and laughed his head off, showcasing his sharp fangs, which glinted unnaturally in the dark lighting. "**A **_**battery**_**! AH-HA-HA! That's the first time I've heard **_**that**_**!**"

Naruto sighed. "That would make me an even bigger battery."

Kurama didn't stop roaring with laughter.

Tenten's eyebrow twitched. "Well, am I or not?"

"You're not a battery." He looked towards Kurama, who didn't stop laughing. "Actually, you're the only way for us to do anything outside." Naruto looked towards her, his expression growing serious. "And we have to do everything for the future."

"What happens?"

"What?"

"In the future?" Tenten spoke up.

Naruto blinked at her, surprised. Then, sorrow spread over his features. "A lot of things. Things that no one should deal with." He said softly. "So many things."

Tenten wanted to ask more, but she didn't want to push him any further. "Ok."

She thought about her dream, and how he had said that she had lost her motivation. What even had happened to her in the future that she lost her motive to achieve her dream? Her dream ever since she was a baby?

_It's for my dream. _Her eyes hardened. _For Lee's dream._ She thought about Neji. _For Neji's dream._

She thought about her class as a whole, and all the shinobi in the leaf village. She thought about the ninja that would stop by her father's shop every week just to talk to encourage her, and to congratulate her for coming so far. She thought about _those_ people—the people who supported her.

"Ok." She said again, reaffirming her thoughts and words. "I understand." Tenten looked towards to Naruto, and for the first time since they had met, she grinned brightly.

Naruto, in what felt like the first time in forever, grinned back.

* * *

Hope the flow of the story felt natural. Leave reviews please! I read all of them!


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